Melbourne English teacher attacked and killed while hiking in Georgia

The murder of a Melbourne English teacher outside Tbilisi was partially captured in a phone call to a friend.

Shanae Brooke was trekking Mount Mtatsminda in Tbilisi on Friday \when she was attack. Picture: Supplied

Melbourne woman Shanae Brooke has been murdered while hiking in Georgia with a friend in California hearing part of the attack on the phone.
Ms Brooke, an English teacher, had been living in Georgia for the past two years and disappeared while hiking in the Mtatsminda area and with part of the attack captured while she was on the phone to a friend in California.
On July 30, her friend received a call from Ms Brooke and heard her cries for help. Ms Brooke could be heard begging “please let me go, OK … just let me go.”
Volunteers, including many expats, joined the search with police officers before Ms Brooke was found the next day.
Her killer is at large but local news site Agenda.ge reported Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri claimed the ministry ‘has some information about the alleged murderer‘, including the fact that he/she is not a foreign citizen.
“The ministry and police officers are doing their best to find the murderer … We [the Ministry of Internal Affairs] have some information, though I cannot talk about it due to the interests of the investigation,” he said.
The news site reported Minister Gomelauri denied media reports that two other women had also been recently physically assaulted in the Mtatsminda park area, explaining that the women told the Interior Ministry they had not been assaulted, but merely followed by an unknown man near Mtatsminda park.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a statement saying the Old Tbilisi Police Main Division of Tbilisi Police Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an investigation.
“All necessary operative and investigative activities are underway,” the statement said.
Friends of Ms Brooke have paid tribute to the teacher who taught English around the world.
Sarah Richards taught alongside Ms Brooke in Cambodia and sent her deepest condolences to Ms Brooke‘s family.
“I feel truly honored [sic] to have crossed paths with such an incredible woman,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Shanae was always up for an adventure, so kind-hearted to those around her, full of laughter and a shining light. I lack the words to fully express what I feel however I only have love for her.”
Zoe Wright described Ms Brooke as one of the most selfless, kind and down to earth women she has met.
“We are grateful to have known you, and the world will be a much emptier place without you in it,” she wrote in tribute.

A spokesman from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement: “The Australian Government offers its deepest condolences to the family of an Australian woman whose death is being investigated by authorities in Tbilisi, Georgia.

“An officer from the Australian Embassy in Turkey (accredited to Georgia) has travelled to Tbilisi to liaise with Georgian authorities.

“DFAT is providing consular assistance to the woman’s family.