This was published 9 months ago
Record $1m reward paid out after Cordingley murder charge
By Laine Clark and Keira Jenkins
A record $1 million reward has been paid out “in full” after an international search led to the arrest of a man accused of murdering a Queensland woman.
Queensland Police offered the massive sum in late 2022, four years after Toyah Cordingley’s body was found by her father on a beach in the state’s far north.
Toyah Cordingley was found dead on Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns.Credit: Facebook
Police Minister Mark Ryan approved the largest reward in the state’s history for information leading to the location and arrest of runaway suspect Rajwinder Singh.
Police believed Singh had flown to India soon after 24-year-old Ms Cordingley’s body was found, leaving his wife and children behind at Innisfail near Cairns.
Weeks after the reward was announced, Singh was arrested in New Delhi.
The Innisfail nurse was extradited to Australia and charged with murder in March 2023.
More than 12 months later, Queensland Police confirmed the $1 million reward had been paid to a number of people.
“The Queensland Police Service has finalised the reward process,” it said in a statement.
“We appreciate the significant public interest in this matter. However, information provided on the process is limited as it is obtained on a confidential basis.
“As such we will not reveal specifics of the reward only to advise it has been paid in full to a number of claimants.”
Cordingley was found by her father partially buried on Wangetti Beach near Cairns in October 2018, a day after she was reported missing.
The pharmacy worker and animal shelter volunteer had driven to the popular beach for a Sunday afternoon walk with her dog.
Her death shocked the local community, with hand-made posters appearing in shop windows asking for information.
Then-federal assistant minister to Attorney-General Amanda Stoker issued an arrest warrant to Indian authorities for an unnamed suspect in the case in March 2021.
The record reward was offered in 2022 leading to Singh’s New Delhi arrest weeks later before an Indian magistrate ordered his extradition to Australia.
Singh had earlier waived his right to challenge the extradition order, telling AAP in New Delhi: “I want to go back. It is the (Indian) judicial system that has been holding things up.”
“I did not kill the woman,” he said, adding he wanted to “reveal all the details” to an Australian court.
Police arranged for Singh to be flown from Melbourne to Queensland via private air charter and he was charged with murder soon after arriving in Cairns in March 2023.
He was remanded in custody after his matter appeared in Cairns Magistrates Court.
His trial is set to begin in the Supreme Court in Cairns this year.
AAP