ASHLEY BROWNE

A 21-YEAR-OLD Caulfield woman charged on Monday with the murder of a St Kilda man last week is a member of the Melbourne Jewish community.

Natasha Epshtein was apprehended by Victoria Police over the weekend. She appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Dan Muling in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday morning and was charged with the murder of Peter James Len in St Kilda on the evening of July 30.

Epshtein was remanded to reappear in court for a committal hearing on November 30.

Defence solicitor Bernie Balmer reported to the court that she was on medication for a number of conditions including anxiety and depression.

“She’s ill. She has a number of [health] issues”, Balmer confirmed to the AJN in a phone interview on Monday evening.

At the time of her arrest, she had an court date for later this month on an unrelated shoplifting charge, Balmer confirmed.

Balmer said Epshtein is being held at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park while he prepares a request for bail.

“We [couldn't] apply for bail [today] because it’s a Supreme Court application and this court did not have any jurisdiction to hear any bail application”, Balmer said.

Balmer said that he intended to lodge a bail application in the Supreme Court sometime in the next few weeks.

If the case against Epshtein goes to trial, that trial would be an estimated 12-15 months away, Balmer said.

Balmer said that his client has not entered a plea, nor admitted any wrongdoing.

“I’d say she’s cooperating [with the police], but that doesn’t mean she’s admitting the offence”. Balmer said.

Epshtein’s Facebook page says she attended Shelford and she is understood to have attended Mount Scopus Memorial College as a Year 8 student for one year in 2001.

She was an outstanding junior athlete and twice represented Maccabi Australia at the Jewish Community Centre Games in the United States. In 2001 she took part in track and field, while the following year she played basketball.

According to her Facebook page, she was employed at a Richmond hotel. However, the AJN also understands she was well known to workers who deal with Melbourne’s homeless.

Ahron Shapiro and Adam Kamien contributed to this report.