Irma and Gregor Palasics came to Australia as refugees with nothing but the clothes on their backs and two young daughters.
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The Hungarian refugees, who fled their homeland in the 1950s under the looming threat of Russian occupation, worked their fingers to the bone to carve out a new life in a new country.
They spent time in NSW holding camps before coming to Canberra, living in garages, riding to work and building three homes before finally settling in one.
Their daughter Liz Mikita was eight years old, and her younger sister six months, when the family fled Hungary, crossing into Austria and then Switzerland and Italy.
"We were going to America – everyone was going to America in those days – and then they had these lovely spruikers there saying, 'come to Australia, it's the land paved with gold, golden opportunities," she said.
"Well there were golden opportunities for my parents but they worked for 20-odd years for it, and it all got taken away in the end."
Mrs Mikita, now 64, stresses the family doesn't want sympathy. They want justice.
On the night of November 6, 1999, the Palasics were the victims of a horrific crime.
Two balaclava wearing men broke into their McKellar home and tied up the couple.
Irma, 73, and Gregor, 74, were gagged and savagely beaten.
Their attackers ransacked the home, supposedly looking for money and jewellery.
Her husband freed himself and called police, but could not save his wife.
Their daughter said he never recovered from the brutal home invasion. He has since passed away.
"They basically killed two people that night, not just one," Mrs Mikita said.
"My dad wasn't alive any more, he only just existed."
And, whether by tragic coincidence or through a malevolent campaign of intimidation, it was the third time the pair had been robbed in three years.
In 1997 thieves stole more than $100,000 cash and jewellery worth $17,000 from their Red Hill home.
Then in October 1998 Mrs Palasics went to the fridge in the garage to get a slice of lemon for her tea and disturbed an intruder.
He struck her in the face and fled the scene, but not before she pulled off his balaclava.
The couple's phone line had been cut before Mrs Palasics came across her assailant.
Last month police announced they had a potential break-through in a cold case murder almost 13 years old.
They're keeping tight lipped about the nature of the find, but investigators have drawn a link between the murder and a break-in at the Pitch and Putt golf course in Phillip in May 2010.
They released CCTV footage of a four youths standing near a roller door, which police say they later charged and forced from its frame.
Mrs Mikita hopes the reward money will encourage someone to come forward with information about the killing.
"We just don't need these sorts of things being in our society, they don't deserve to be in our society," she said.
"If they've done it once, who knows how many more times they've done it.
"And it just gives them incentive to do it because they think, oh yes, we can get away with it, can't we?"
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or go to act.crimestoppers.com.au