Jury in High-Profile Down Under Homicide Trial Visits Beach Where Victim Was Discovered

Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have traveled to the remote shore where the victim was discovered.

The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow grave with little or no chance of survival, the court has been told.

The remains were discovered by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The accused, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.

Jury Visit to Beach

The panel of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors attended the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning in Queensland.

In a nod to the hot climate and sweltering heat, the judge opted for a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, bottoms and headwear.

Location Details

The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.

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

The trip was intended to help the panel become familiar with important sites in the trial and no testimony was given.

Context of the Trial

Previously, the court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and relatives.

He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the state said.

State Case

It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.

The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with her attire and most of her possessions missing.

Those items were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, prosecutors contend.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found secured to a tree concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the burial site.

The weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.

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

This will involve evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The jury has previously been told evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the beach after the killing – and that its travel matched those of a vehicle belonging to the defendant.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has claimed.

Defence Position

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer portrayed his client as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."

He also foreshadowed testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had witnessed two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."

The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.

Further Evidence

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was one who gave evidence last week.

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

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.

The case will return to the standard environment of the courtroom on Tuesday.