UPDATE: The Two Intruders | A second sting and a cancer diagnosis
episodePreviously titled “16 The Two Intruders | A second sting and a cancer diagnosis” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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He was setting the bombs off in subways, in the New York Public Library, in movie theaters. When you're testifying in court, rather than having purely your own memory, you take on all these little bits and pieces of information from different sources.
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MUSIC
The arrest for a million dollar conspiracy that led police to one intruder and a health crisis of the other that almost derailed the trial. These are the uncloaked details we can finally tell you about. I'm Stephen Stockwell. Welcome to episode 16 of The Case of the Two Intruders.
Irma Palacic's brutal murder rocked her family and has haunted them for 24 long years.
This wasn't the average robbery. The brutality of the attack shocked the community.
They were virtually tortured that night.
Violently assaulted before the two men ransacked the premises and stole cash and jewellery. My grandparents were beaten and my grandmother was left to die on the lounge room floor. It was always made clear in the trial how Joseph Oconee was linked to Irma's death. They had his DNA that had been on a balaclava that was pulled off of him at an earlier robbery. But how Steve Fabrizi was linked to the house and the invasion in 1999 was a secret that was kept throughout the trial. And with one suppression lifting, we can finally answer it. To unpack these details, we're joined by the ABC's court reporter in Canberra, Elizabeth Byrne. Welcome, Liz. Hi, Stockie. And we've also got ABC investigative reporter James Viver in the studio as well.
James, welcome back. Thanks, Stockie. First, Liz, DNA was such a strong focus of this trial. Police linked Steve Fabrizzi's DNA to DNA from the 1999 robbery where Irma Placix was killed. And this was a turning point in a case that was, at the time, starting to get pretty cold. It is a kind of wild story of police work. Can you tell us how they managed to do this?
Well, the problem for Steve Fabrizi was that he had committed another crime and police in Victoria had his DNA. And when a 2019 review looked into whether there was any record of the two lots of unknown DNA incidents, in the Palazic's fridge, there was a hit on one of them, and that was Steve Fabrizi.
It's an incredible breakthrough, and it was such a big gap in this story as we were telling it. We were getting emails to the case of at abc.net.au with people saying, hey, so we know how Joseph Oconee's been tied to this, but Steve Fabrizi, he seems to be the person that's broken this open. You know, how did the police do that? And we couldn't tell anyone about that. Why did we have to keep this a secret until now?
Well, that's because the way that the DNA was collected was because Steve Fabrizi had committed another crime. And if the jury had known that, it might be prejudicial information and might compromise his right to a fair trial. Now, this is fairly common.
What are the details of the second police sting linked to the intruders?
You normally wouldn't mention earlier offences when someone's on trial for another offence, whatever that offence might be. And so that's fairly run of the mill. But the jury could never know about it. And some of them might be finding out about it now because it was important to keep that information under wraps. So there was a fair trial. And that's why we weren't able to say anything.
Yeah, and that suppression has now been lifted. But James, this was such a huge moment, you know, the linking of Steve Fabrizzi's DNA to Irma Placix's home in 1999. I mean, how big of a deal would it have been for investigators making that connection?
Well, it was described in the trial as a sharp turn in the investigation. Just to give people a timeline of this, because this information that has now had the suppression lifted on it sort of slots into a piece of the timeline. So just very quickly, 1999, of course, this is the home invasion, the two intruders, and
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:36
2
What are the details of the second police sting linked to the intruders?
3:36–12:41
3
How was DNA evidence crucial in linking Steve Fabrizi to the crime?
12:41–19:18
4
What was the significance of the suppression lifting in the trial?
19:18–28:23
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Case Of
12 Alan Jones | Lewd texts about journalist Kate McClymont revealed in court
11 Alan Jones | Sydney lunch allegations tested with new witness
10 Alan Jones | Two radio titans, one courtroom
The Two Intruders | Irma Palasics killers sentenced
09 Alan Jones | Radio ally declared 'unfavourable witness’
08 Alan Jones | What happened under the table?