Man arrested over the death of Doveton woman Rani Featherston
UPDATE: A MAN charged with murdering Rani Featherston and an attempted murder about 10 days earlier has not applied for bail after facing an out-of-sessions court hearing.
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A MAN charged over the brutal stabbing murder of Doveton woman Rani Featherston has made a “full admission” to the attack and another attempted murder, a court has heard.
A sombre Christian Bain-Singh, 22, faced an out-of-sessions hearing at Cranbourne Police Station on Wednesday night over the 2014 incident, in which he allegedly stabbed Ms Featherston in the head and face with a bladed weapon.
The 34-year-old died on a Doveton footpath just 500 metres from her home.
Detective Senior Constable Matt Klova told the bail justice that Bain-Singh had made a full admission to the murder, sometime between April 1 and 2.
The man from Clyde North was also charged with the attempted murder of Daniel Maynard about 10 days before Ms Featherston’s death — on Chestnut Rd, Doveton on March 22, 2014 — which he also allegedly confessed to police.
When the bail justice asked Bain-Singh if he wished to apply for bail, he quietly responded with his eyes downcast, “No, I do not.”
Bain-Singh — who had a hand tattoo, full beard and wore lip, nose and eyebrow piercings with ripped denim jeans — sat still and did not ask any questions throughout the hearing, only occasionally glancing toward the locked door of the hearing room.
He was also charged with aggravated burglary and trespass.
Bain-Singh was remanded at Cranbourne police station overnight to appear at Melbourne Magistrate’s court at 10am on Thursday.
Ms Featherston’s bloodied and beaten body was found near a tree in an industrial area in Eumemmerring on Lace St on the morning of April 2, 2014.
Her family less than a fortnight ago staged a remembrance walk to the scene where she was murdered.
Mourners lay flowers and held a minute’s silence to remember Ms Featherston and all victims of violence.
Homicide Squad detectives in April this year released an image of a temporary tattoo on Ms Featherston’s lower right leg in the hope it would reveal new detail about her final movements.
She did not have the mystery tattoo in CCTV showing her at a Dandenong employment centre in Robinson St the day before her body was found.
Father Kevin, joined by Ms Featherston’s younger brother Aaron during the appeal for new information, said his daughter’s death had devastated the family.
Her heartbroken mother died from illness last May never knowing who killed her daughter.
“We are going to get them — who did this to her,’’ Kevin said.
“While these people are out there other people are in danger. They are not human in my book.’’
Aaron Featherston said while his sister did not have children she adored her four nieces and doted on her dogs which she regularly walked.
“We cannot stress enough how broken we are as a family,’’ he said.
“It has smashed our life into pieces.
“She had a beautiful smile with a big heart and would do her best in life and would help anybody.
“We will not rest until Rani’s killer is found and brought to justice.”
Investigators had also sought to identify a mystery man seen with Ms Featherston near Oleander St, Doveton where she lived the evening of the killing.
It was believed Ms Featherston entered the street where she was killed from the north, crossing a footbridge over Eumemmerring Creek, and that her killer or killers walked a similar path.