Nearly 45 years after a young hotel singer was found murdered inside the lift of her Melbourne apartment tower, police in Australia are making their most forceful push yet for answers.

Victoria Police announced that the reward for information in the 1981 killing of 25-year-old Haroula Kipouridou has been increased to $1 million. The original reward, issued just three months after her death, stood at $50,000.

The dramatic increase signals what investigators say is an unwavering commitment to solving a case that has haunted the Richmond community for decades.

“Haroula’s death was nothing short of brutal,” Detective Inspector Dean Thomas of the Homicide Squad said in a Feb. 22 news release. “It involved a significant amount of violence and her last moments would have involved pain and fear.”

Kipouridou, a resident of Richmond and a singer at a hotel on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, had been working the night shift before her death in July 1981. According to police, she finished performing and was driven home around 2 a.m. by two associates.

After being dropped off at her Elizabeth Street address, something went terribly wrong.

Police say her body was discovered on the floor of a lift inside the apartment tower where she lived. She had been severely physically assaulted and sexually assaulted during the attack.

Despite early investigative efforts, the case went cold.

Now, nearly half a century later, authorities believe someone still holds the missing piece.

“We know people who commit or are part of horrific crimes such as these will often disclose their actions to someone,” Thomas said. “Investigators remain hopeful that this is that case, and by announcing this reward and making this appeal it may lead to someone coming forward to assist police.”

The $1 million reward will be paid at the discretion of the Victoria Police chief commissioner if information leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of those responsible.

The renewed appeal also carries an implicit message: time has not erased responsibility.

“For the past four decades, the person or people responsible for this have been out in our community,” Thomas said. “It is our aim to do everything we can to identify those responsible and hold them to account.”

Cold cases from the early 1980s often present unique challenges. Forensic technology was limited compared to today’s DNA capabilities, and witness memories fade. But advances in investigative science have reopened countless long-dormant files across Australia and around the world.

Police did not indicate whether new forensic testing is underway but emphasized that even a small detail — a conversation overheard, a confession made in passing, a long-held suspicion — could shift the trajectory of the investigation.

Thomas concluded with a direct appeal.

“If those people are still out there, I want them to think about this and to understand we haven’t given up.”

For Kipouridou’s surviving loved ones and for a city that remembers the shock of a young woman killed in her own building, the increased reward represents more than money. It is a public acknowledgment that the passage of time does not dull the pursuit of justice.

Forty-five years later, the lift doors have long since closed. But investigators hope that someone, somewhere, is finally ready to open another door — and speak.