🔗 Share this article

Jurors involved in a widely publicized Australian murder trial have traveled to the remote beach where the victim was discovered.

The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed with a bladed weapon and placed in a sandy grave with little or no chance of survival, the jury has heard.

Her body were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The accused, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in northern Australia.

Jury Inspection to Crime Scene

The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the judge and barristers on the start of the week local time.

In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Scene Particulars

The jurors were guided around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers showed where the victim's car had been left.

The visit was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no official evidence was given.

Background of the Case

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.

He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the state said.

State Argument

It is alleged that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.

The victim was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.

Those objects were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was located tied up to a post hidden in shrubland about 100 feet from the grave.

No murder weapon was found, and no one have been identified.

But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."

This will involve testimony that DNA obtained from a stick at the location was extremely more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.

The jury has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the beach after the incident – and that its travel corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the accused.

Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his involvement, the state has claimed.

Defense Position

"While authorities were discovering Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.

The defense is has not present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his defendant as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."

He also foreshadowed testimony to come subsequently that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an undercover officer he had witnessed two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.

Further Testimony

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities excluded as a possible suspect, was among those who testified last week.

The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her body were discovered.

Images depicting the witness on a walk with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.

The case will resume to the standard environment of the courthouse on the next day.