WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT
Ex-Detective Narelle Fraser says she is still haunted by the stomach-turning stench that emitted from a vehicle at one of Melbourne’s most famous landmarks almost two decades ago.
On the morning of the 13th of February, 2005 — 18 years ago today — that familiar smell confirmed what her team already feared: the woman they had been searching for was already dead.
Melbourne mother Maria Korp, 50, had been reported missing by her distraught brother four days earlier, prompting police to implement an extensive search and full-scale investigation.
Both family and law enforcement suspected her husband Joe Korp, 47, and his mistress Tania Herman, then 38, might have had something to do her disappearance.
But the most important first step was locating Maria.
A security guard noticed her red Mazda parked near the city’s Shrine of Remembrance and called police.
The now 62-year-old Narelle, who was a member of the Victorian police force for 27 years, revealed to news.com.au that she was filled with dread as she approached the vehicle.
“I was confronted with the smell of a decomposing body as we were walking to the car,” she recalled.
“It was extremely potent, even from 100m away. I was anxious because I knew what we were going to find.
“It was at that point all of us realised, oh my god, it really happened, she is dead. It is a horrible feeling.
“There was lots of condensation on the car windows. That confirmed to us that she was definitely in there.
“We checked in the car, but couldn’t see her. That’s when we realised she was in the boot.”
‘The worst smell you could ever imagine …’
Opening up the back of the vehicle, the task force were shocked at the scene they had discovered.
The body of beloved mum Maria Korp lay in the boot, her frail frame bruised, with dried blood crusted around her nose and mouth.
“The smell when we opened up that boot is something I will never forget,” Narelle said.
“It was the worst stench you can ever imagine. It almost knocked you off your feet.
“I can still smell it until this day. It was awful.”
What Narelle did next shocked her colleagues. Without hesitation, she jumped into the boot next to Maria.
“I just wanted to hold her hand and comfort her,” she explained.
“She looked so helpless and alone laying there in the back. There was something inside me that just flicked, and I did it without thinking.
“It was a very human thing. In that moment, it was what I had to do.”
With Maria’s body in decomposition, everyone assumed that she had been killed and her corpse was dumped in the back of her car.
But then, the unthinkable occurred. She started breathing.
“She’s alive!”
“When I got in the boot, naturally I tried to find a pulse, but I couldn’t,” Narelle told news.com.au.
“Then I put my head on her chest. That’s when I noticed it had moved.
“It suddenly rose up and went back down. She was breathing.
“I couldn’t believe it. I thought she was dead.
“I began yowling at the top of my lungs ‘she’s alive, she’s alive!’. We were all stunned."
The team jumped into action right away, and call an ambulance.
A colleague instructed Nicole to stay by Maria’s side, just in case she woke up or said anything about what had happened to her.
She was rushed to the nearby Alfred Hospital suffering severe oxygen deprivation to the brain, head injuries and extreme dehydration.
Maria was placed into a medically induced coma later that day but sadly never regained consciousness.
She remained in hospital almost six months and died in the early hours of August 5, 10 days after she was removed from life support.
A senseless crime
Maria came to Australia from the small island of Madeira in Portugal back in 1976, as a 21-year-old bride with her then husband Manuel De Gois.
Two years later, their daughter Laura was born, before Manuel tragically died of a heart attack in 1987.
Maria, then a single mother, worked at a tyre company, and it was here that she became friendly with her supervisor, Joseph Korp.
A relationship blossomed and they married in October 1991, with their son Damien being born two years later.
However, in 2003, Joe began talking to a woman he had met online – Tania Herman – and things soon progressed from flirtatious chatting on the computer to a raunchy real life affair.
In 2004, Maria’s daughter said her mother divulged to her that she thought her husband was cheating.
About four weeks before the attack, she had bundled her notebooks, where she wrote about her suspicions, along with evidence of Joe’s affair with Tania (such as bills and receipts) into two plastic bags and gave them to a friend.
At 6am on February 9, 2005, Maria went to her garage to leave for work, but had no idea her husband’s mistress was hiding and waiting for her in the dark.
She choked Maria with a strap, then threw her into the boot of her own car, thinking she was dead.
It is alleged that Joe convinced Tania to kill Maria, so that the pair could be together.
Joe Korp took his own life on the same day as Maria’s funeral on August 12.
He was found deceased in the shed of the home the two shared.
Tania Herman was sentenced to a minimum of nine years’ jail for attempted murder. She claimed her lover Joe had put her up to it, an accusation he denied.
She served a little over eight years in prison, before being released on parole in February 2014.
In an interview on Nine’s A Current Affair back in 2010, Maria’s daughter, Laura De Gois, now 44, said she remembered her mother from happier times.
“I don’t want her to be classified as the woman in the boot,” she told the show.
She was not sure if Joe Korp had meant to kill himself but suggested “maybe there was some guilt’’ and added that she believed there had been a time when he had loved her mother.
Laura said she was not happy that Tania Herman received “such a short sentence”.
Stepping down from the police force
Narelle Fraser was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in 2012, and decided it was time to quit her career in law enforcement after nearly three decades.
She now works to raise awareness of the importance of making mental health a priority.
“Maria’s case was very significant in my career,” she said.
“There wasn’t one case that pushed me over the edge, but an accumulation of trauma that I’d witnessed.
“I have seen a lot of horrible things involving sexual assault, murders, violence against women and child sexual abuse.
“I didn’t realise, or maybe I didn’t want to admit it at the time, but it all took a huge toll on my mental health.
“I never sought help until it was too late. It wasn’t something we talked much about back then.
“But I am so glad to see that in modern times, the importance of mental health is being prioritised. It is no longer seen as taboo or unprofessional to talk about.”
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White Ribbon is committed to helping eliminate gendered based violence in Australia.
The charity has an ambitious three year plan to lead systematic changes through grassroot activities and government policy changes to ensure that no woman or child lives in fear of violence or abuse.
To donate, please visit White Ribbon Australia.
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