Irma Palasics murder: Accused Steve Fabriczy extradited to Canberra

"There are many questions that we have as a family that we need answers to," John Mikita, the woman's grandson, told media outside the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday.

"We want justice for Irma and for Gregor."

Steve Fabriczy, 68, was arrested on Wednesday and accused of a role in the 1999 bashing murder of 73-year-old Canberra grandmother Irma Palasics.

Her husband survived the alleged attack, but has since died.

Fabriczy made a brief appearance before the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday, two days after his arrest in Melbourne.

An overcrowded courtroom fell silent as the Melbourne man entered from the cells wearing all black.

Special magistrate Sean Richter formally charged Fabriczy, who did not speak, with murder.

Mr Mikita and other members of Mrs Palasics' family were in court for the appearance.

"My grandparents, as I've said before, did not deserve what happened to them on that night," Mr Mikita said afterwards.

"They were in the safety of their own home."

Legal Aid Lawyer Nathan Deakes, representing Fabriczy on a duty basis, told the court his client would not be applying for bail.

The court relisted the case for early next month, when it is expected prosecutors will make a "forensic procedure application", which may lead to new DNA swabs of Fabriczy being taken.

Mr Deakes said he had not taken instructions from his client on the matter and was unsure if there would be any argument to the application.

Earlier, wearing the same black-and-white checkered shirt and dark grey trackpants as he wore when he was arrested on Wednesday, Fabriczy was frog-marched into City Station on Thursday night.

Fabriczy pulled a plastic bag of clothes up in an attempt to hide his face as two ACT homicide detectives took him from an unmarked black VW Passat police car into the station and down the steps to the watch house.

Once lodged in the watch house, he would have been relieved of his belt and shoelaces, given a blanket and pillow, and waited out the night ready for his first court appearance.

He faced extradition in the Dandenong Magistrates Court on Thursday afternoon. With the extradition granted, he was bundled onto a 6.25pm flight to Canberra.

The hunt for the two men who broke into the Palasics' McKellar home almost 24 years ago, brutally bashing the elderly couple and ransacking their home, has been one of Canberra's longest-running police investigations.

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Mrs Palasics died as a result of injuries sustained during repeated assaults that night.

On Wednesday, police announced they had finally made an arrest.

The extradition hearing heard Fabriczy's DNA, which was taken a number of years earlier by Victorian police, was matched by the AFP in mid-2020.

The court has heard the alleged offender has made admissions to being in the house at the time of the assault but denies being a party to any type of assault.

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