Slain Maryam Hamka’s family say discovery of remains sparked waves of sorrow and relief

The family of slain Brunswick woman Maryam Hamka has spoken to the “surreal” moment they found out they could finally bring their “beautiful girl” home.

More than two years after Maryam Hamka disappeared without a trace, a “surreal” relief washed over her family the moment detectives told them they could finally bring her home.

Since vanishing in April 2021, the Brunswick woman’s family prayed for the day that police arrived on their doorstep to let them know that the gruelling search for her remains had prevailed.

On Monday, their prayers were answered.

Maryam’s sister, Hannah Hamka, said she did not expect to see homicide detectives walking towards the front door of the family home, just weeks before Maryam’s former boyfriend, Toby Loughnane, was due to stand trial for murder.

Loughnane has pleaded not guilty.

Loughnane’s friend, Oscar Newman, has pleaded not guilty to allegations he helped clean up a blood stain at Loughnane’s Brighton home.

Oscar Newman has pleaded not guilty to allegations he helped clean up a blood stain at Loughnane’s home. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald Sun, Ms Hamka said the detectives’ revelation that they had recovered Maryam’s remains sparked waves of sorrow and relief.

Ms Hamka said she and her family knew police had been inching closer to uncovering the location of her sister’s remains, but continued to hope for a breakthrough.

“We were just having a normal day, all sitting together and then we saw the police outside,” she said.

“I ran to the door and I said, “have you found my sister?” and he (the officer) said, “maybe we should talk inside”.

“We all sat around, me, my sister, my mum and my kids, when they (police) said they had found some human remains that they were hoping to be my sister Maryam’s and they had confirmed that it was.

“My family is pretty devastated to be honest. It feels so surreal now.”

Detectives discovered Maryam’s remains at Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula on Monday morning.

Maryam was last seen alive on April 10 2021 leaving a Woolworths supermarket in Brunswick.

Police allege that Mr Loughnane murdered her the following day at his Brighton home.

Mr Loughnane has pleaded not guilty.

Ms Hamka said the discovery allowed Maryam’s family to close a chapter of unknowns and give their daughter and sister a final resting place.

“Now we know that we can have somewhere to visit her and that she is home with us, not out there on her own,” she said.

Ms Hamka said she was relieved that Maryam would be reunited with her family after being buried at a site that held no significance to her, or her loved ones.

“We’ve found her. She’s home with us. We get to bury her and have some dignity so she’s not out there, like she was nothing,” she said.

Maryam Hamka with her mother Susan. Picture: Supplied

Maryam Hamka. Picture: Victoria Police

Ms Hamka remembered her sister, who was 36 years old when she disappeared, as a “beautiful girl” who loved her family.

“She had a beautiful heart,” she said.

“It was the way she treated everyone. She was just a good person. She was always there if someone needed her, you could count on her.”

A mother-of-two to Maryam’s niece and nephew, Ms Hamka said she wished she could rewind the clock to when Maryam lived under the same roof as her family, including sisters Amal and Hannah, brothers Hassan and Ayman and their mother.

“She loved her nieces and nephews. She was so close to him (her nephew). She loved him,” she said.

“She used to take him out everyday while living with my mum at the time, living with all of us.

“It was a beautiful moment. I just wish we could have that all back.”

Ms Hamka said Maryam’s family had continued to demand justice over her death and have kept each other strong in the years following her disappearance.

“She was an innocent girl, a beautiful girl. She loved from her heart. So why her?” she said.

“We want justice. We don’t want this to happen to other women … to another family. It is happening way too much.

“If we didn’t have faith in God, we wouldn’t have gone this far … He gives us the patience to get through this.”

A funeral will be held and Maryam will be laid to rest once the Coroner releases her body to her family.

Challenging searches by the missing persons squad

The discovery of Maryam Hamka’s remains ended the latest in a succession of complex and challenging searches by the missing persons squad.

Its detectives have retrieved bodies from bush graves, a mineshaft, a suburban rubbish dump and isolated rural hiding spots in recent years.

The MPS cases are homicide investigations which start with no body and, frequently, unreliable accounts of where the missing person has gone.

The most high-profile of their searches was that involving missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, who vanished in remote East Gippsland.

Police searching for missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay. Picture: Supplied

In March, 2020, the friends disappeared from the Wonnangatta area, sparking the biggest missing persons case in the state’s history.

Twenty months later, after the arrest of Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, their bones were located east of Dargo.

One of the most painstaking of the MPS cases was that of Ju “Kelly” Zhang, a 33-year-old mother stabbed to death in her Epping home in February, 2021.

Detectives used technology and legwork to track the movements of her suspected killer on the night and build a picture of what he had done with her body.

Four months after she disappeared, the dogged work of detectives and waste industry officials yielded the discovery of Ms Zhang’s body at a tip in Wollert, north of Melbourne.

In April 2020, Ballarat mother Kobie Parfitt vanished without being reported missing.

Ballarat woman Kobie Parfitt. Picture: Victoria Police

Investigators later established she had been murdered and, after eight months of searching, found her remains in a mineshaft outside the western Victorian city.

In December, 2018, Lakes Entrance man Bradley Lyons, 30, vanished without explanation.

The disappearance was later ruled to be suspicious and, four months later, investigators discovered his remains outside of the town.

Bound and bashed, Mr Lyons had been forced into a shallow grave where he was shot dead.

The body of Moe man Jarrad Lovison was tracked to a remote bush road a month after he was left for dead by his killers in April, 2020.

Melbourne murder victims Zane Meyer and Brendan Farrell were found in 2020 and 2021 respectively, weeks after they died.

Last month, MPS detectives found the remains of Matthew Warrington, whose body was hidden after a suspicious house fire in Melbourne’s east.

Detective Insp. David Dunstan of the MPS said a lack of answers in such cases often deepened the pain of loved ones left behind.

“One of the hardest aspects in a missing persons investigation, particularly for families, is not knowing what has happened to their loved one or where they are. Often it compounds their grief as they are left with so many unanswered questions,” Insp. Dunstan said.

“Without doubt, being able to give these families some level of closure by recovering the person who is missing is one of the most satisfying things in investigations like these.”

Insp. Dunstan praised the commitment of MPS detectives who had found themselves working tirelessly, frequently in difficult and trying circumstances.

“We don’t give up and these cases don’t close,” he said.

“These are matters that often start without a specific crime scene, so it’s an exhaustive process to follow every avenue of inquiry until ultimately we find the missing person and also hold those responsible to account.”