Second autopsy for dead tourist in Mozambique

A second autopsy will be conducted in South Africa on the body of Melbourne woman Elly Warren.

A second autopsy will be conducted in South Africa on the body of Melbourne woman Elly Warren, who died in Mozambique almost two weeks ago.

Ms Warren, 20, was found dead outside a toilet block in the tourist village of Tofo on ­November 9.

Her father, Paul Warren, ­issued a statement late on Friday saying: “I have come to South ­Africa in order to bring my beautiful daughter, Elly, home. Based on all the facts I now know, I am absolutely certain that my daughter has been ­murdered by suffocation.’’

While Mr Warren is adamant his daughter was murdered, ­Mozambican authorities have said that she showed no outward signs of having been assaulted or raped and, while investigations into her death continued, it was not a murder investigation.

At a public gathering in Tofo, following Ms Warren’s death, ­locals were told by police that a preliminary autopsy report found she had died from ­asphyxiation after collapsing head first into the sand.

An Australian Federal Police officer, based in South Africa, and two other Australian offic­ials were in the regional capital of Inhambane late last week and were liaising with Mozambican police and officials.

One of the officials they met in Inhambane, a government lawyer, told The Australian that the Mozambican autopsy report into Ms Warren’s death was ­almost complete and would be released when toxicology tests were finalised.

This lawyer said while he could not say what was in the ­report, he could confirm that there was no indication Ms Warren had been raped or murdered.

The lawyer said that a second autopsy would be conducted in South ­Africa where Mr Warren was waiting, and that Mozam­bican authorities had no problem with that.