Emergency services were called to a home on Dudley Street, Haberfield, about 11pm on Saturday 6 September 1986, after the body of 56-year-old Tatiana Sokoloff was found on the back veranda.
The initial investigation established the home had been broken into and property had been stolen.
Local police and detectives from the Homicide Squad conducted a thorough investigation at the time, however, no one was charged with her murder.
The 1987 Coronial inquest into her death found that she died from head injuries and strangulation by a person or persons unknown.
In August 2018, detectives from the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Unit established Strike Force Nickleby to re-investigate the circumstances surrounding the murder.
As part of their inquiries, numerous exhibits were re-examined and re-tested by specialist forensic offences, which returned a DNA profile.
Following extensive investigations, Strike Force Nickleby detectives applied for an arrest warrant for a 63-year-old man, who was believed to be living interstate.
About 4pm on Thursday 12 December 2019, the man was arrested by Victoria Police, in the presence of strike force investigators, in a car park at St Albans, Victoria.
The man appeared at Melbourne Magistrates Court, where NSW Police Force detectives applied for and were granted his extradition to NSW.
He was escorted by Strike Force Nickleby detectives on a flight to Sydney last Friday, 13 December, and taken to Surry Hills Police Station.
The man has since been charged with murder but he has firmly denied the charges.
(Source: NSW Police)
Tatiana Sokoloff was born in Milan on September 13, 1929, the only daughter of Paolo and Claudia Sokoloff and grew in an intellectual and stimulating environment. Her father, Pavel Aleksandrovič Sokolov, was born in Moscow in March 1892 and was an author and university professor. Her mother, Klavdija Fitelego, studied singing at Milan Conservatory of Music.
La casa di Tatiana Sokoloff nel 1986. Source: NSW Police
Paolo Sokoloff, a decorated war hero (the Cross of St. George, the Order of St. Anne and the order of St. Stanislaus), became profoundly opposed to Bolshevism and left Russia in 1918. After a long and adventurous journey through various Eastern European countries, settled in Milan where he arrived as a political refugee in 1923. He graduated from Milan’s Catholic University four years later becoming, at the peak of his career, a professor of Russian at Bari University.
Tatiana graduated in foreign languages at Bari University and in 1962 he won a teacher's scholarship as exchange professor at Sydney University becoming Senior Tutor until her tragic end.
Tatiana Sokoloff was well known to Sydney’s Italian community.
"She was loved in our community," says former NSW MLC Franca Arena. "Therefore her murder was a shock for the community, because Tatiana was very well known to us".
