Grieving father of Elly Rose Warren vows to solve mystery of daughter’s death in Africa
THE father of a young Melbourne woman who died while volunteering in Africa will embark on a personal mission to try and solve the tragic mystery.
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THE father of a young Melbourne woman who died while volunteering in Africa will embark on a personal mission to solve the mystery.
Paul Warren, whose 20-year-old daughter Elly Rose was found behind a toilet block in Tofo, Mozambique, on November 9, 2016, said he will head there before the second anniversary of her death.
He said he had no answers surrounding the circumstances of Elly’s death and felt he wouldn’t get any unless he travelled there in person.
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“(Whoever killed Elly) is out there still,” Mr Warren said.
“The only way I feel we could ever catch that person is to go over there and ask for information.
I am going to go over there and I am going to ask questions … someone will know something.”
Mr Warren plans to talk to staff at the Pariango backpacker hostel Elly was supposed to be staying on the night she died, although she never officially checked in.
His interview list also includes workers at the idyllic Casa Barry Lodge, where she had just checked out, having finished her six-week volunteer stint on a marine conservation project.
If possible, he’ll also speak to people who were at the party Elly attended with her friends earlier in the evening of November 8, and with as many locals as he can.
Elly’s body was found by a fisherman at 5am the next day, sprawled face down in the sand, behind the public toilet, with her bikini bottoms around her ankles.
Mr Warren said he was convinced Elly had been attacked and killed, with her head held in the sand until she suffocated.
Multiple autopsies have revealed the fit and healthy young woman had sand in her lower airways and abrasions and bruising on her neck and mouth, but no other injuries or signs of assault.
Extensive toxicology tests in Mozambique, South Africa and Australia show Elly had no drugs in her system, and the South African forensic pathologist had told Mr Warren an eye fluid test had revealed she had only a minimal amount of alcohol in her system.
The Melbourne father said he was convinced Elly had been attacked and killed, with her head held in the sand until she suffocated.
“If you have a girl like that, very fit, how can she fall into the sand and the sand go right in, down past her mouth and all up her bronchili into her lungs? It doesn’t make sense,” Mr Warren said.
“And she had marks on her neck. It was soft sand. Silky, soft sand. When I went to South Africa and I viewed Elly in the funeral parlour and I saw her face, straight away I knew that she’d struggled.
“There were abrasions around her mouth and neck and I was nearly in tears because I could see she’d been struggling — that she’d fought.”
Elly’s death is now being investigated by the Victorian State Coroner, but Mr Warren said he was becoming angry and frustrated at the long process.
“I’m at the point now where I’m just pulling my hair out with the (Victorian) coroner. I’m very, very upset. It’s just taking far too long,” he said.
“We have been told three months, six months, a few more months, by the Victorian coroner for a cause of death for Elly, but they are leaving us in the dark.
“It’s just a nightmare. We need to have this finalised.”
A friend of Elly’s, who did not want to be named, was staying with her at the beachfront Casa Barry Lodge in the weeks before she died.
She said she believed Elly had been killed. Tofo bar owner, Victor, who was one of the last people to see Elly alive, agreed.
Elly had come to the bar alone, looking for her friends, and left alone, he said.
Mr Warren said he wanted to warn other young Aussie travellers against leaving their friends and walking alone at night, particularly in third world countries.
He said he feared Elly had become increasingly relaxed in Tofo, the longer she stayed in the idyllic, African coastal village, volunteering with a dive group on a marine conservation project.
On the night she died, Elly had walked around Tofo alone, Mr Warren said.
He is pleading with other young backpackers not to become “complacent” when travelling.
“I think, after being there for several weeks volunteering, and becoming sort of part of the community, she started to feel safe and became complacent,” Mr Warren said.
“Before she left she said ‘dad, I know it’s dangerous over there and I promise I will be careful’. She promised me she wouldn’t go off alone.”