Aiia Maasarwe’s sister heard deadly attack over phone

Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe was on a phone call with her sister, who heard the moment she was attacked.

Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe, who was killed after a late-night tram ride to Melbourne’s north, in a picture posted on Instagram.

Aiia Maasarwe, the young international student murdered after getting off a Melbourne tram, was speaking to her sister in Israel when she was attacked, with her sibling hearing her cry out and drop the phone.

The 21-year-old Arab Israeli student was so scared of the walk from the tram stop to her student accommodation she would call one of her sisters while walking to feel safer, a family member told The Australian yesterday.

Ms Maasarwe’s body was found on Wednesday morning about 50m from the 86 tram stop, where she got off after a night out and started the 1km walk to her lodgings near La Trobe University in Bundoora. She had spent the evening at The Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne, before being dropped into the city by friends and catching the tram home, getting off at 12.10am.

Police are investigating whether she was followed, much like ­Eurydice Dixon, a young Melbourne comedian who performed in a city comedy club and was followed home and killed.

GRAPHIC: Aiia’s last movements

Ms Maasarwe, who was on an exchange program at La Trobe, had long feared for her safety walking along Main Drive at night, her sister Noor told The Australian from Shanghai, where the pair studied together until the middle of last year.

“She has to make a phone call whenever she’s taking that road, whenever it is night — when it is dark — because that road is not safe,” she said. “To make her feel better, just to stay on the line with her, she has to make the phone call with me or with my other sister.”

On the night of her death, Ms Maasarwe had spoken to her sister in Israel.

Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said investigators had found a grey and black T-shirt and a black cap they believe belonged to the killer.

“This was an absolutely horrendous, horrific attack inflicted on a completely innocent young woman who was a visitor to our city,” Mr Stamper said. “We’re pretty certain that she was actually involved in a conversation with her sister, who is overseas, at the time of the attack. Sadly, her sister was talking (and the phone) appeared to fall to the ground and she couldn’t contact her.”

Noor Maasarwe said not much had been said between her sisters on the phone the night of the ­attack.

“(Aiia) just got off the tram, then she was walking and she was calling her (the sister in Israel) and she’s like ‘I didn’t think you would pick up the phone’,” she said.

“My other sister back home, she didn’t have time to respond. Then (Aiia) screamed in a surprised way and an angry tone. She was like mad and surprised. Then she dropped the phone — it was the sound of a phone that dropped — and no sound of her. There was the sound of cars.”

Noor Maasarwe is angry at what she said was a lack of security measures along that road to protect young, vulnerable students.

She had planned to visit Aiia this month, and had been looking forward to seeing her.

“She’s funny. When you’re with friends, she’s always making jokes and everyone laughs. She’s a very fun person and everyone who knows her knows how good she is and how much of a good time you can have with her. She has a pure soul (and) a lot of energy.”

Inspector Stamper said Aiia Maasarwe had been at The Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne with friends on Tuesday night. CCTV footage from the club shows her wearing a T-shirt, skirt and a backpack.

Her friends drove her into the city and dropped her off at a tram stop on Bourke Street at 10.50pm, and she rode the 86 tram for up to an hour to reach Bundoora.

Shortly after she got off the tram, her attacker pounced.

“Our presumption at this stage is this was a random attack and ­opportunistic,” Inspector Stamper said.

Investigators found the cap and T-shirt less than 100m from where Ms Maasarwe’s body was found. They have declined to say whether they believe she had been sexually assaulted.

“This is the key to solving this crime and somebody in the community knows who did this. Somebody’s come home on Tuesday night or the early hours of Wednesday morning maybe with blood on them (and) missing items of clothing,” Inspector Stamper said.

Her close friend and fellow international student Diana Rodriguez said Ms Maasarwe had been trying to break her accommo­dation contract since November.

“I still can hear her talking about her dreams and the things that she would do when she goes back to China,” Ms Rodriguez said.

“Is that fair? Someone just stole her life, her dreams, someone just stole our opportunity to see her become all the things that she ­imagined to be.”

Ms Rodriguez said she wanted to know what protections were in place at the time of the tragedy. “The place that everything happened is dark and it doesn’t have any police presence,” she said.

“I don’t want to think that the people will forget this. I want to have justice for my friend, and I want to ask as well for the authorities to take measures to prevent and protect the students here.”

Noor Maasarwe agreed: “She was just doing one year in Australia and then come back. I was going to go visit her next week.

“I was counting down the days to visit her and this happened. I am so mad. This is not acceptable. I have to say that road is not safe.

“There should be more police there, there is no light at that road. It’s so dark. I’m not sure if there’s a security camera — I’m guessing of course that there’s not.”