- A father opened up in court about the devastating moment he found his daughter’s body buried under the sand on a beach in Australia, per reports
- Toyah Cordingley, 24, was found dead on Wangetti Beach on Oct. 22, 2018 after she went to walk her dog the day prior and didn’t return
- “I dropped down to my knees and I scooped the sand three times, and on the third scoop, there was a foot,” her dad, Troy, recalled, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
A father is speaking out in court about the devastating moment he discovered his daughter’s body buried on a beach in Australia.
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, Troy Cordingley — whose daughter, Toyah Cordingley, 24, was found dead on Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland on Oct. 22, 2018 — appeared at the Supreme Court in Cairns, per the Australian Associated Press (AAP). It’s thought Toyah was killed the day before her body was discovered after she went missing on a dog walk.
Rajwinder Singh, 40, is standing trial and has pleaded not guilty to her murder, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Troy recalled searching for his daughter the day after she disappeared and revealed in court that he was resting under trees when 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,” Troy told the jury, per the outlet.
“I reeled back. I was horrified. I yelled out ‘Help me, help me.’ I was shocked, stunned,” he added, according to the AAP.
Toyah Cordingley.
Queensland Police
Per the ABC, forensic pathologist Dr Paul Botterill told the jury that the victim suffered an “extraordinarily deep” 17-centimeter neck wound. She also had injuries to her abdomen, chest, and fingers.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane suggested the victim may have been buried alive, per news.com.au, saying she was “buried shortly before or after her death.”
“She was left with her injuries with no hope of survival,” Crane said, per the outlet.
Crane also said Toyah “was alive” when she sustained the injury to her neck, the publication reported.
The crown prosecutor suggested that tracking on the victim’s phone indicated that she left — or that the phone was taken away from — the beach at 5 p.m. local time on the day she went missing, per the AAP. She was likely already dead at that time, the outlet stated, citing Crane.
Her phone tracking matched several places that a blue Alpha Romeo sedan was seen on CCTV driving to Lake Placid Holiday Apartments, Crane said, per the news agency.
“Rajwinder Singh owned a blue Alpha Romeo, a similar vehicle,” Crane told the jury, according to AAP.
Troy Cordingley.
Queensland Police Service via AP
AAP reported that a male DNA sample “2000 times more likely” to be from the suspect than a random man was also found on the victim’s fingernails.
Singh left Australia and headed to New Delhi the day after the victim’s body was found, per the news agency. He was not seen again until November 2022 when he was found in India, his native country.
According to the ABC, Toyah’s boyfriend, Marco Heidenreich was the first person to raise the alarm about her disappearance.
She had reportedly sent him a text at 3:17 p.m. on the day she was killed claiming she was picking up a friend named Tyson from the airport at around 7 p.m. that evening. However, when Heidenreich drove past the beach on his way home, her car was still parked there, per the outlet.
Heidenreich has denied involvement in his girlfriend’s death, per the AAP, despite admitting that his stepfather — a former Cairns police officer — was friendly with a detective working on the murder case.
Barrister Angus Edwards, defending Singh, questioned Heidenreich, “Did you think there was anything unusual about your treatment by the police?” to which he replied, “No,” per the AAP.
The lawyer insisted anybody at the beach that day could have killed the victim, telling the court, “As you go through trial, ask yourself if Mr Singh being the killer is the only possibility,” according to the news agency.
The trial is expected to last another four weeks.
