Loading The decision crippled the prosecution case for murder. It meant prosecutors could not tell a jury the alleged details of Ristevski deliberately excluding and withholding information, and fabricating facts to distance himself from his crime. "Given that ruling, your honour, I think we all need some time before we go any further," chief crown prosecutor Brendan Kissane, QC, told the court on Wednesday. When the case returned to court at 2.15pm, Mr Kissane said a fresh indictment with one charge of manslaughter would be filed.

"I will indicate, your honour, that Mr Ristevski will be pleading guilty to that charge," Ristevski’s lawyer David Hallowes, SC, said. The manslaughter plea does confirm Ristevski, who was a pallbearer at his wife's funeral, was lying to detectives. When Karen went missing, he claimed she had gone for a walk to clear her head. There is no avenue for prosecutors to appeal Justice Beale's ruling. Karen's badly decomposed remains were found in Macedon Regional Park eight months after she went missing.

Proving murderous intent was key to the murder case, with an autopsy unable to ascertain how she died because of the level of decomposition. Prosecutors had argued that murderous intent could be proven, as it eventually had in the case of Brisbane real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay, who like Ristevski, killed his wife Allison in 2012 then dumped her body and denied any involvement. He was found guilty of murder in 2014, but his charge was downgraded on appeal to manslaughter when his lawyers argued he could have unintentionally killed his wife. But the murder charge was later reinstated by the High Court. Mr Hallowes told the Ristevski pre-trial hearing on Tuesday there was no evidence of murderous intent from his client and that Karen's death was more of a spontaneous killing. Had he admitted killing her initially, he would have faced a substantial jail term and his relationship with the couple's daughter, Sarah, would have been irreparably damaged, Mr Hallowes said.

The case against Ristevski had been largely circumstantial, hinging on a number of vital pieces of evidence. The financial stress the couple were experiencing was one key piece for the prosecution. The committal hearing that decided the case should go to trial heard the Ristevskis' fashion boutique, Bella Bleu, recorded losses of $326,000 over four years. They also had credit card debts of more than $80,000, on top of a $715,000 mortgage. Police had alleged Karen was killed during an argument over finances. Ristevski's conduct after her disappearance and then discovery of her body was also important. Prosecutors had alleged he used his wife's Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of the body in bushland, and turned off both their phones on the way so he couldn't be tracked. He then allegedly dumped his wife's body between two logs and concealed it with branches before returning home.

Prosecutors said Ristevski failed to tell them he drove Karen's car after he claimed she had left. When he did admit to driving it, he said he only drove as far as Gisborne and visited the Taylors Lakes clothing store before returning home. Karen's aunt Patricia Gray later told Ristevski's committal that his account of his movements on the day of the disappearance was "flimsy" and he did not want help to find her. Karen's husband, Borce, their daughter, Sarah, and Karen's aunt Patricia Gray, speaking to the media in 2016 to appeal for help to find the missing mother. Credit:Penny Stephens "I found it hard to fathom," she said. Ristevski also did not contact any of his wife's family about her disappearance, prosecutors said.

Loading The couple's daughter Sarah was 21 when her mother was killed. She told the committal that her family had been "very close" and during the few arguments her parents had, her mother was the one to raise her voice and her father was "never" aggressive. "Dad was always the calm one," she said. Sarah said her mother had seemed bubbly on the morning of her disappearance. When her mother did not come home that night her father said he didn't know where she was. "You know what she gets like when she gets onto one thing and then onto another and continues it," Sarah told the court her father had said.