The scene of a death stays with you. Former homicide detective Sol Solomon knows this as intimately as anyone who has spent decades hunting killers through Victoria's darkest cases. When pressed to articulate what haunts him most, his words carry the weight of experience: the image of a victim left on a nature strip, the need to steel himself against the emotional impact of confronting human tragedy.
Solomon's career in Victoria Police homicide investigations exposed him to the kind of case work that shapes a detective's moral framework. His public statements to official inquiries reveal a detective grappling with cases that didn't resolve neatly, where institutional decisions clashed with investigative instinct.
Most notably, Solomon gave testimony to the Royal Commission into Victoria Police's use of informers, speaking directly to the 2004 execution-style murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine. Investigators identified a key witness in lawyer Nicola Gobbo, who later became known as Lawyer X. Yet Solomon labelled the decision to drop her evidence as "unethical" and possibly "unlawful". The detective believed the prosecution could have been resurrected, but institutional constraints prevented it.
A confidential settlement between Gobbo and Victoria Police included an agreement that she never be subpoenaed as a witness in future by Victoria Police for any Victoria Police matter. This condition, Solomon argued, undermined the case fundamentally. He maintained conviction about the culprits' identities while the legal system moved in the opposite direction. Charges were ultimately dropped.
The Tension Between Institutional Reality and Investigative Truth
Solomon's willingness to speak publicly about these conflicts represents something increasingly rare in policing: a veteran willing to name institutional failures rather than absorb them silently. His testimony didn't emerge immediately. Despite being handed to Victoria Police in January, Solomon's statement was only passed to the commission in May and released publicly on Tuesday night. The lag raises questions about internal processes and how thoroughly such statements are actioned.
Victoria Police contends with 200 homicide "cold cases" in Victoria according to Victoria Police. Each represents a failure to deliver closure, a family denied answers. Each also represents a detective carrying that weight into retirement.
The psychological toll of homicide investigation rarely features in public discourse. Detectives develop resilience through necessity. But when a case involves clear evidence of guilt hampered by bureaucratic constraints, that resilience becomes strained. Solomon's case demonstrates that the emotional dimension of detective work extends beyond the crime scene; it includes the frustration of institutional impediments.
What distinguishes Solomon's approach is his refusal to accept institutional logic as inevitable. Rather than view the Gobbo settlement as settled law, he questioned its logic, its ethics, and its impact on justice. This stance carries professional risk. It also carries moral clarity.
For anyone tasked with hunting killers through a state's criminal underworld, carrying images of victims on nature strips, the work never truly ends. Neither does the reckoning with cases that could have closed differently had institutional decisions favoured investigation over bureaucratic convenience.