Police probe final days of murdered Melbourne woman Vicki Ramadan

A handyman interviewed at length by detectives probing the murder of an elderly widow has spoken of the moment he found her slain inside her Melbourne home.

Stuart Anderson told 9NEWS he was still in shock after discovering 77-year-old Vicki Ramadan savagely beaten and lying in a pool of blood inside a hallway.

“I felt really sick,” he said.

“Just a big shock of just fear went through me.

“I ran out of there quicker than I walked in.”

Mr Anderson, who is a neighbour of Vicki Ramadan, said he was going over to speak with her about repairs to her fence early on Saturday April 7.

“Knocked on the door and noticed that she wasn’t home and went to go walk out and noticed that her back gate was open which I thought was a bit strange,” he said.

Mr Anderson said he then found the back door of the Sydenham property broken into, before alerting police.

He said Ms Ramadan befriended him a few months prior to her death, and he and his partner would often help her with odd jobs and cleaning around her house.

On Sunday, Mr Anderson was interviewed for seven hours by homicide detectives.

Detective Senior Sergeant Pixie Fuhrmeister confirmed police have spoken with several people as part of the investigation but there were no suspects.

Police are investigating whether the widow was killed during a “robbery gone wrong”, as the 77-year-old known to collect expensive jewellery and carry around large wads of cash.

Officers today stepped up efforts to catch the widow’s killer, setting up an information caravan near the murder scene.

Forensic officers were also dusting for fingerprints at an abandoned property previously inhabited by squatters – in what is a key line of enquiry for police.

Neighbours claim the squatters had threatened to kill Vicki in recent months following a verbal dispute.

“We have spoken to a number of people who have stayed in that address,” Det. Snr Sgt Fuhrmeister said.

“There are a number of others that we believe have stayed there that we’d like to come forward.”

Detectives have urged anyone who saw the elderly woman, or people at her home, on or after March 23 to come forward.

“We’re trying to obviously piece together her last known movements and hopefully give us a clearer picture of what happened on the last few days of her life,” Det. Snr Sgt Fuhrmeister said.

“It’s an incredibly disturbing incident that an elderly lady has been assaulted within her home and left to die."