"We are different people now because of this tragedy."
Former nurse Rajwinder Singh was found guilty of Toyah Cordingley’s murder, seven years after her body was found on an Australian beach.
Singh repeatedly stabbed Cordingley and slashed her throat at Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland in 2018 before fleeing Australia for India, where he spent years in hiding.
Cordingley was discovered by her father half-buried in sand dunes north of Cairns, a day after she failed to return from walking her dog. Her dog, Indie, was found alive nearby, tightly tied to a tree.
After years of uncertainty for the family, a jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict at Cairns Supreme Court on December 8 following a four-week retrial and about seven hours of deliberations.
Cordingley’s mother, Vanessa Gardiner, said:
“This event turned our world upside down for years, and we all know a special part of our fun, tight-knit family is now gone forever.
“We are different people now because of this tragedy.
“Some days it is still hard to believe she is no longer here physically with us and the horrendous way she was taken from us.”
Gardiner said her family would “never forget” Cordingley and would not forgive Singh.
She added: “We will always wonder what could have been if her life was not cut so short.
“As far as the person who committed this murder and inflicted a horrible death on our daughter, you will never be forgiven by us.”
Singh’s first trial ended in a hung jury eight months ago.
Cordingley had taken her dog for a walk at Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018. Her family raised the alarm when she failed to return, before her father made the grisly discovery the following morning, about 80 metres from her car.
Police said Cordingley died after “a personal and intimate attack”.
Tributes flooded in for the “gentle, humble and loving” young woman, who worked at an organic food store and volunteered at an animal shelter.
About 350 people attended her funeral at a small chapel in the Cairns suburb of Manunda.
Soon after the body was found, Singh, a nurse from Innisfail about an hour south of Cairns, left Australia. He boarded a flight to India, his country of birth, leaving behind his wife and three children.
In March 2021, the federal government approved an extradition warrant for Singh over police suspicions that he had fatally stabbed Cordingley.
On November 3, 2022, the Queensland government announced a record $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Weeks after the reward was announced, Singh was arrested in New Delhi. He was extradited to Australia and charged with murder in March 2023.
Singh had earlier waived his right to challenge the extradition order.
He said:
“I want to go back. It is the (Indian) judicial system that has been holding things up.”
Singh added: “I did not kill the woman,” and said he wanted to “reveal all the details” to an Australian court.
Queensland Police later confirmed the $1 million reward had been paid to a number of people.
Following the verdict, Cordingley’s father, Troy, said the loss of his daughter could never truly be remedied.
He said: “The world was a poorer place without Toyah.
“Today’s verdict has delivered a form of justice, but for us, it can never be true justice. Toyah will always be alive in our hearts.”
Singh will be sentenced on December 9.
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