Family and Friends of Elly Warren reveal last moments

Family and friends of a 20-year-old found Australian dead in Africa with sand in her lungs have given chilling accounts of her last moments.

Family and friends of a 20-year-old Victorian woman found dead near a Mozambique toilet block have issued heart wrenching statements as an inquest into her death gets underway.

Elly Warren was found face down by local fishermen near a public toilet block in the coastal town of Tofo in November 2016.

20 year old Melbourne woman Elly Warren was killed in Mozambique’s Tofo Beach in the early hours of November 9, 2016. Her killers have never been found and brought to justice.

Ms Warren had spent six weeks volunteering in the African nation and was only days from returning to Melbourne when her life was cut short.

State Coroner John Cain told the first hearing of a coronial inquest into Elly’s death that he hoped the probe would provide “answers” for her grieving loved ones.

The inquest follows just days after African authorities ruled her death a homicide.

Jade O’Shea, a close friend of Ms Warren’s, read a statement to the court via video link on Tuesday, with the woman describing her late friend as “outgoing, loud and curious about everything”.

Ms Warren was killed after a night out with fellow volunteers. Picture: Supplied

She said the pair and other volunteers would spend nights together in Tofo.

She said the group had been at a local bar the evening Ms Warren was killed, before heading back to one of their houses to enjoy some wine.

Elly disliked wine, Ms O’Shea told the court, and told the others she wanted to return to the bar.

Ms O’Shea noted she looked “normal” when the group later caught up with her at the bar.

Ms Warren gestured to them about 11pm that she would grab a beer and join them.

According to Ms O’Shea’s statement, that was the last time her friend and fellow volunteers saw her.

“We assumed she went home to the hostel,” Ms O’Shea said.

A security guard was one of the last people to see her alive at about 2.30am.

Family and friends remember Ms Warren as an ambitious woman who loved life.

Before Ms O’Shea returned to her accommodation, she used the public toilet block where Ms Warren was found, just 20m from the bar.

“I walked over the exact location where her body was found, and she wasn’t there,” she revealed.

Elly’s body was found in that exact spot hours later.

In her statement, penned in the months after Elly’s death, Ms O’Shea stated it was her belief Ms Warren was murdered by an “unknown person” who intended to rape her.

However, she told the court on Tuesday that there was no way for her to know Ms Warren’s attacker’s intentions despite her being found with her underwear around her knees.

“I know for sure that what happened to her was someone else … and that she was killed,” Ms O’Shea said.

“Nothing she did contributed to that. She wasn’t drunk. She wasn’t out of control.”

Ms Warren’s father, Paul, told the press outside the court that he missed his daughter “terribly” and believed there was “no way” thick sand could have reached that deep into her lungs if she died where she was found.

Elly Warren and father Paul Warren. Picture: Facebook

“She was a woman on a mission,” he said.

“She was very ambitious. She loved life. She was out there to enjoy life to the fullest.

“She was definitely murdered down the main beach and her body was moved to that area,” he said.

“Now I think it’s to sort of throw everybody off track and to cast doubt.”

He also said it was “positive” that Ms O’Shea’s evidence had finally revealed Ms Warren had not consumed much alcohol the night she died.

Mr Warren also criticised the AFP on the court steps.

“I think that the AFP need to set different standards [and] come up with a better system for families in a crisis in need, especially this,” he said.

“I had to do my own investigation for seven years. The AFP didn’t help us.”

Sergeant Ross Treverton told the court earlier in the hearing that an autopsy conducted in Mozambique revealed Ms Warren died from asphyxia after inhaling sand, with an expert ruling her death a homicide.

An inquest into Ms Warren’s death continues.

Another autopsy, conducted in South Africa, found that Ms Warren did not appear to have suffered a sexual assault and did not have drugs in her system.

A final Australian autopsy was unable to determine her cause of death.

Ms O’Shea told the court she felt Tofo was a “safe place”.

“The locals were so lovely,” she said.

She said local media had reported a “dangerous group of males” were in the area, but she believed they posed no threat.

Australian authorities flew to Mozambique this year in a final attempt to gather more information regarding Ms Warren’s death.

Coroner Cain had urged them to “move heaven and earth” to find answers.

The inquest continues.