The retrial of the man accused of fatally stabbing 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley and burying her in the sand has opened with jurors visiting the remote Australian beach where she was killed in 2018.
On Oct. 22, 2018, Cordingley’s body was discovered on Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland after she failed to return home from an afternoon walk with her dog the previous day.
Her father, Troy Cordingley, went out searching when she did not come back. While resting against a tree, he noticed an unusual mound in the sand.
“I dropped down to my knees and I scooped the sand three times, and on the third scoop, there was a foot,” he said, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
“I reeled back. I was horrified. I yelled out ‘Help me, help me.’ I was shocked, stunned,” he added, per the AAP.
Cordingley, who worked at an organic food store, suffered an “extraordinarily deep” 17-centimeter wound to her neck, as well as injuries to her abdomen, chest and fingers, forensic pathologist Dr. Paul Botterill told jurors in February, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Prosecutors say she may have been buried alive. Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told the court, per news.com.au, that Cordingley was “buried shortly before or after her death.”
Rajwinder Singh, 40, a nurse, was arrested in March 2023 and charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
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His first trial ended in March after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, The Guardian reported.
On Monday, Nov. 17, jurors, along with the judge and lawyers for both sides, were taken to Wangetti Beach. They walked nearly 2.5 miles to reach the exact area where Cordingley’s body was found, ABC reported.
Prosecutors allege that after killing Cordingley, Singh took her phone and other personal items and drove past “bodies of water” in order to dispose of them, according to ABC.
They say her phone later pinged at locations far from the beach.
Traffic cameras captured a blue vehicle similar to Singh’s blue Alfa Romeo traveling in an area where Cordingley’s phone had pinged, prosecutors allege.
After her body was discovered, Singh — a married father — left Australia, quit his job and stopped making mortgage payments on his family’s home, Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told jurors during the first trial, The Guardian reported.
Cordingley’s mother later found her daughter’s dog, Indie, tied to a tree near the spot where the body was located, ABC reported.
