A paedophile priest was seen covered in blood on the day of the frenzied stabbing murder of a mother in the back of her Thornbury bookshop, a new report has revealed.
The ABC uncovered the new information in its podcast Trace, which attempts to shine new light on the 1980 cold case murder of Maria James.
Ms James, 38, was stabbed 68 times in her home at the back of the bookshop.
Electrician Allan Hircoe told the podcast he had seen Father Anthony Bongiorno on the day of the murder with blood on his face and both hands, just 50 metres from the crime scene.
Mr Hircoe said the priest had told him he'd cut himself on a wire fence.
When he returned from retrieving his first-aid kit, Bongiorno was gone.
Police did not consider the priest a suspect at the time, but detectives re-interviewed him in 1998 and by 2007 he was thought to be a person of interest, the ABC said.
Mr Hircoe only made a police statement in 2014 after seeing a picture of Bongiorno in an article about the cold case.
The priest was ruled out as a suspect in 2015, but Victoria Police has never said why.
In a stunning twist, Bongiorno was also accused of abusing Ms James' son, Adam.
Adam, who has cerebral palsy and Tourette's syndrome, told Trace his mother had discovered the abuse only the day before.
She was due to confront the priest on the day of her murder.
The year after the murder Bongiorno was transferred from St Mary's in Thornbury to St Ambrose in Brunswick, where he was accused of abusing three boys.
He was acquitted in two of the cases. The third was discontinued.
A state government tribunal has since ruled Bongiorno had committed child-sex crimes and awarded the victims compensation. The church has done the same, the ABC said.
People close to the investigation told Trace the priest - who died in 2002 - was ruled out as a suspect in the murder on the basis of DNA evidence.
But former top cop Ron Iddles, who investigated the murder when it occurred and later as a cold case, told Trace DNA was not absolute and said he would like the decision reviewed.
"While I understand he may have been ruled out on DNA, I don't know where that sample came from," he told the ABC.
"Something just didn't sit right."
Ms James' eldest son, Mark, has also called for the investigation to be reopened.
"I can't see any rational justification for the dismissal of that electrician's statement and I think the DNA evidence needs to be looked at again in a broader perspective," he told Trace.
Comment has been sought from Victoria Police.