Posted: Thu 11/03/22 1:16pm Updated
Melbourne: A $1 million reward has been announced to help arrest an Indian man who, according to police, may have murdered an Australian woman on a beach before fleeing to India.
In October 2018, Toyah Cordingley, a 24-year-old pharmacy worker and animal shelter volunteer, died while walking her dog on Wangetti Beach. Her father found her body the next morning, The Guardian reported.
Three Queensland detectives have travelled to India and are working with authorities to find Rajwinder Singh, 38, who worked as a nurse in Innisfail but fled the country two days after the murder, taking his job, his wife and three children Stay in Australia, news.com.au reports.
An investigation centre has also been set up in Cairns, where Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking police officers from across the state have flown in, according to police.
Police also released photos of Singh at Cairns Airport on October 23, 2018, from where he flew to Sydney and then to India.
In March 2021, Australian authorities filed an extradition request for Singh, from Butalkaran, Punjab.
His brother-in-law, Harpreet Singh, previously told The Courier-Mail that the timing of his return to his Punjab hometown of Amritsar was a coincidence.
“Raj was incapable of killing… He was too quiet, too scared. His job was stressful,” Harpreet Singh said.
