By Riley Walter and Amber Schultz
The last time Kathleen Kirby messaged her daughter, Audrey Griffin, she told her she loved her and that she was proud of her.
The 19-year-old had just visited her grandfather in hospital and taken her grandmother out for lunch on the Central Coast during a trip to visit her childhood friends. She planned to host them at a farewell party in Sydney the following weekend before she set off to join the navy in early April.
Kathleen Kirby says her daughter Audrey Griffin had “the world at her feet”.
It was supposed to be the start of a new chapter in the teenager’s life.
But Audrey would not embark on that new chapter. Celebrations at the Hotel Gosford in the early hours of March 23 with some of her closest friends would be among her last moments. Just over 36 hours later, police found Audrey’s body partially submerged in Erina Creek, Erina, after she was allegedly murdered by 53-year-old Adrian Noel Torrens.
“She had the world at her feet,” Kirby told the Herald hours after Torrens was charged with her daughter’s murder.
Audrey had left the Hotel Gosford about 2am and walked along The Entrance Road towards her father’s house, aiming to hail a taxi after trying unsuccessfully to book an Uber. An hour later, after not hearing from her, Audrey’s friends reported her missing. At 3.45pm, her body was found in the creek.
Police allege in that time Audrey was killed during a “physical altercation” with Torrens, who was not known to her.
“I don’t think she ever got in the Uber,” Kirby said.
“She’d actually had a conversation with her friends saying that she was going to catch a cab soon and that she was just walking home and that she was going to call a cab. She’d obviously gone along the waterfront to try and get a cab because there were none, obviously, where she was, and she’d taken the long way home along the water, obviously to try and hail down a cab, or she would have taken a shortcut through the heart of Gosford.”
When police initially found Audrey’s body her death was treated as non-suspicious. When they publicly appealed for information about Audrey’s death, they again said it was not being treated as suspicious.
Superintendent Darryl Jobson said although Audrey’s death had “not sat well” with police in the early stages of the investigation, there were no suspicious circumstances identified, nor evidence from a post-mortem examination that suggested foul play.
Adrian Noel Torrens has been charged with Audrey Griffin’s murder.
But on Friday, police received information that led them to treat Audrey’s death as a murder. Jobson would not publicly reveal who had provided the information, only that it came from “other sources” following the public appeal.
Three days later, around midday on Monday, detectives arrested Torrens in Surry Hills, Sydney, charging him with Audrey’s murder.
Police will allege Audrey tried to fight Torrens off after he followed her, scratching him in the process and lodging some of his DNA under her fingernails.
They will further allege Torrens struck the left side of Audrey’s face and knocked her unconscious, causing her to drown, or held her underwater. Police will also say she had scratches on her upper arms and a mark to the left side of her face that could have been caused by blunt force.
Meanwhile, a witness living near Erina Creek told investigators she heard a high-pitched scream around 3am.
Jobson said detectives had worked “tirelessly” over the weekend following lines of inquiry before the murder charge was laid.
“These are the kinds of incidents where police want answers because we know family want answers and when we’ve got those gaps in information, and for a 19-year-old woman to meet her death in a creek was very unsettling for us as investigators,” Jobson said.
“There is a ripple effect that goes through [the] community, [the] community are feeling it, and I must say first responders also feel it.”
Audrey Griffin was celebrating with friends before her alleged murder.
Jobson said his heart “goes out” to Audrey’s family, who he said was “understandably devastated”.
“I can’t imagine the grief they’re feeling,” he said.
Torrens did not apply for bail, which was formally refused in Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday. He will reappear in court on June 20.
Outside court, Torrens’ lawyer, Bashir Elkheir, said his client had not indicated what plea he would enter.
Footage of Audrey hours before her death showed her “having the time of her life”, her mother said.
“She was very happy.”
Kirby had shared an especially close bond with her only child. She and Audrey’s father, Trevor, separated when Audrey was 16 months old.
Kathleen Kirby shared an especially close bond with her only child.
“It was just me and her,” Kirby said, adding that Audrey remained close with her father.
Weeks before her death, Audrey, an accomplished teen athlete and University of Technology Sydney student, had competed in the New Zealand half-ironman. She had also travelled to Japan on a ski trip with friends, and had got her motorcycle and jet ski licences.
Kirby said her “vibrant”, “smart” and “beautiful” daughter’s death had shattered the close-knit Central Coast community, where Audrey was “very well loved”.
“She was amazing,” Kirby said. “Absolutely amazing.”
Hundreds of mourners, dressed in white to honour Audrey’s “bright spirit and the joy she brought into the world”, gathered at the teenager’s funeral on April 11.
Audrey was a member of the Gosford water polo club, which said the 19-year-old “always brought a smile to those around her”, and a member of Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club.
Audrey was also part of the Terrigal Wamberal Sharks rugby league club, where she played junior and senior football and was a member of the Sharks’ inaugural under-17s premiership team, and the club’s inaugural senior women’s team.
“With a larger-than-life personality, and happy-go-lucky nature, Audrey would hit with sting then check that they were OK, and then skip to each of the scrums,” the club said in a social media tribute.
“Audrey will be sorely missed by the Sharks family. May she rest in peace.”
A fundraising page launched to help with funeral costs raised more than $30,000.
“We are heartbroken by the unexpected loss of our beautiful Audrey,” the fundraiser said.
“Audrey touched everyone, not just in her community but all over the country. She was the light in many of our lives. There is no doubt she [brought] endless laughter and joy to everyone. She was the kindest soul to walk this earth and will always be in our hearts.”
Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.