THREE years after her son died in a house fire, Jacqueline Kovacs still believes someone knows more about her son’s death than they are letting on.
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Jacqueline’s son Billy Johns died when a fire broke out in their Kelso home.
Everyone else in the home made it out of the fire, but Billy took shelter in a bedroom and perished in the blaze.
The matter went before the State Coroner’s Court in Glebe in June where it was finalised and dispensed by the coroner.
Police investigating the blaze at the time quashed rumours it started by a Molotov cocktail being thrown through a window of the McMenamin Place home, but Ms Kovacs remains adamant the fire was deliberately lit.
Ms Kovacs, who along with her family moved away from Bathurst in the months
following Billy’s death because they feared for their safety, has since returned to the city, and said she feels certain someone has more information about how the fire that killed Billy started.
“A lot of people think it is a closed investigation, but it’s not,” she said.
“Billy deserves justice.”
Ms Kovacs said the family came back to Bathurst in September last year.
“We moved away to Armidale in the months after Billy’s death.
“We were overcome with grief and staying in Bathurst was too much, although in hindsight it was a bad decision to move,” she said.
“We moved because we feared for our safety, but in Armidale we had no friends or support,” she said.
Ms Kovacs said she still believes the fire was deliberately lit.
“I just want people to know the investigation is ongoing, and if anyone knows anything to please call the police.
“It makes me sick to think I could be passing the person [involved] in the street,” she said.
Happy to be back in Bathurst, Ms Kovacs said she rarely goes back to Kelso, simply because it’s too hard.
“An old neighbour called up the other day and asked me over for coffee, but I can’t go. We struggle every day.
“Not only dealing with Billy’s death, but the fact whoever did this is still out there,” she said.
Ms Kovacs said Billy’s brother Owen, who is now five, is going to West Bathurst Public School. “That’s where Billy should be now,” she said.
Ms Kovacs said she remembered the morning Billy died like yesterday, and thinks of Billy all the time.
“He was a very social boy and a lot of people miss him. He made a lot of people laugh.”
She recalled her last conversation with Billy, about all things, McDonald’s.
She said she lives in hope that one day she will find out ‘the truth’.
“Billy deserves justice. Even as a little boy he knew if you did something wrong there were consequences, so whoever did this to him should be punished,” she said.
Anyone with information can contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
