Cirrus@Austlit

'On a winter morning in June 1980, Maria James turned to her son Mark and looked him in the eyes.

"She said to me, 'if anything happens to me, look after your brother.'"

Later that day she was found stabbed to death at the back of her suburban Melbourne bookshop, where she lived with her two boys.

Was it a scorned lover? A random stranger? Or was the murder tied up in the sins of the Catholic Church?

Presented by ABC investigative reporter, Rachael Brown, Trace sifts through evidence to see whether police missed anything at the time, revisits suspects, and finds a new one of its own.

The story is propelled by three men who've refused to give up hope Maria's killer will be found; her two sons, Mark and Adam James, and one of Australia's best-known detectives, Ron Iddles. Ron recently hung up his boots with a Bradmanesque strike rate, but this case — his first — well, he’s never really let it go.

"Someone knows who killed Maria James," says Iddles. "The answer’s always in the file.'

Source: ABC.