HOMICIDE detectives flew to the Philippines in a bid to solve the murder of a woman in Springvale.
The body of the 50-year-old was found outside a Springvale house in View Road wrapped in a garbage bag. Police identified the woman as a Filipino resident.
Detectives, with the assistance of members of the Australian Federal Police, flew to Manila to collect dental records and DNA samples from people they believed to be family members of the victim.
POLICE and Noble Park traders – some who had lost up to 50 per cent of their business – were pleading for shoppers to return to the town’s centre as its streets were cleared of crime.
Craig Wachter, grandson of the late City of Springvale mayor Frederick Wachter, and owner of Budget Buys in Buckley Street, said Noble Park’s streets were the safest they had been in years.
A COMPASSIONATE volunteer who won the Greater Dandenong Australia Day Citizen of the Year award said she would rather stay out of the spotlight.
Hearing of her achievement at a council meeting, Norma Murphy, 83, said she didn’t feel that she deserved it.
Throughout her life, Mrs Murphy has assisted a variety of organisations and community groups, including St Gerard’s Primary School and church, YWCA, St Vincent de Paul, Diabetes Australia and the RSPCA.
NOBLE Park Cricket Club raised its bat in recognition of a memorable century.
The club celebrated its 100th anniversary with a gala dinner at the club’s Moodemere Street headquarters, inviting Parkers past and present to salute a fine innings.
A NOBLE Park family was in mourning after the sudden and unexplained death of a teenage footballer during a preseason training camp near Eildon.
Kass Mercer, 19, collapsed while running up a hill during the final activity of the Cranbourne Football Club’s weekend trip to the town of Jamieson.
Kass was unable to be revived despite the repeated efforts of a club official, a local doctor and attending paramedics.
SANDOWN Racecourse attracted tens of thousands of people for the Vietnamese Tet, or lunar new year, festival.
The three-day event commemorated 40-year anniversary of the Mau Than, or Year of the Monkey, Tet Offensive in 1968, considered to be the turning point of the Vietnam War.
Fireworks displays thrilled the crowd, and the festival included 44 food stalls showcasing Vietnamese culture, and 42 game stalls, while the 3000 people present at the official ceremony paid their respects to those who lost their lives.
RESIDENTS were pushing Greater Dandenong Council to bring back the city’s landmark, Mr Pig.
Formerly property of the Dandy Bacon Company, Mr Pig is Victoria’s oldest animated neon sign.
He used to be on display above the Dandy Bacon butcher shop on the corner of Foster and Lonsdale streets but was pushed aside to make way for oversized advertising billboards to reside in the Dandenong market car park.
AN improbable comeback victory over the two-time defending champions had the Dandenong Rangers within one win of the Women’s National Basketball League grand final.
The Rangers seemingly shocked everyone but themselves in rallying from 19 points behind to stun the Canberra Capitals 60-54 at the Australian Institute of Sport.
A DANDENONG playground equipment manufacturer was fined $5000 for failing to reinstate an injured worker into his old job.
Playspace Playground pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates Court to failing to provide an injured employee with his preinjury position as required under Victoria’s workers compensation legislation.
KEYSBOROUGH siblings Natalia and Paul Rahman qualified for the Beijing Olympics, after outperforming their domestic competitors at Olympic trials in Sydney.
Paul, 23, and Natalia, 25, competed for Olympic gold in men’s and women’s skeet shooting events.
A MOBILE billboard advertising ‘Hot Pussy’ in Dandenong was set to lead to a State Government crackdown on how the sex industry promotes itself.
In December 2007, the Maxwell Street legal brothel changed its name to Hot Pussy and began advertising by driving a mobile billboard with its name and logo around Greater Dandenong.
Despite criticism and complaints, the brothel said it was doing nothing illegal, and would continue its mobile billboard campaign, which prompted local politicians to look at regulating sex industry advertisements
CASEY’s soccer players were striking up a smile after the announcement of a State Government grant of $60,000 to upgrade Reema Reserve sports ground.
Endeavor United Soccer Club were the big winners, with an extension to an existing soccer pitch, new lighting infrastructure and the relocation of a playground all included.
