When Australian Elly Warren was murdered in an African seaside town, the 20-year-old’s family never imagined that seven years later they would still be searching for her killer.
As they coped with the trauma of her death, they had to fund their own investigations, hire private investigators and pass on information to Australian Police and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“This whole process has been a mess for us,” Warren’s stepfather David Cafarella told a coroner on Wednesday.
He said the Australian Federal Police and DFAT were ‘seemingly incapable of cooperating coherently’, with no financial or legal assistance provided and no assistance in repatriating their daughter’s body from Mozambique.
Cafarella called on Victorian coroner John Cain to order the AFP to open a homicide inquiry into Warren’s death and the agency to change its processes for families of Australians dying overseas.
Elly Warren (above) was found dead outside a toilet block in Tofo, Mozambique in 2016 – her killer was never caught
Elly Warren’s family (pictured right) had to fund their own investigation into the 20-year-old’s death
“An independent unit that could come together at short notice if needed to ensure every aspect is dealt with in a short space of time, instead of seven years of back and forth between agencies all concerned about who p*** t’, he said. .
“I think if this had happened very early on, Elly’s killer would be behind bars.”
Cain investigates Warren’s cause of death in November 2016 and the circumstances surrounding it.
Jade O’Shea, who was witnessing remotely from New Zealand, met Warren while she was working at a popular diving resort in Tofo, Casa Barry, and the two became friends.
She said a group of friends, including Warren, went to Victor’s Bar and then another friend’s house to make cocktails.
After an hour or two, the cocktails ran out and Warren left to go back to Victor’s Bar because she was bored.
“She was definitely not drunk, she was completely coherent and sober,” O’Shea told the court.
Warren (above) was a budding marine biologist and was volunteering in Mozambique when she was killed
Jade O’Shea said she met Warren (above) while working at a popular dive resort in Tofo and last saw her at a popular bar
When she and the others arrived at Victor’s Bar, Warren wasn’t there and it was busy, so the group sat in front of the bar and had beer.
Warren then rounded the corner and gestured to the group, as if she were going to get a beer from the bar and join them.
That was the last time O’Shea saw her friend, around 11 p.m. on November 8.
Warren, a budding marine biologist who was volunteering in the country, was found dead outside a toilet block in the seaside town of Tofo.
AFP commander of international engagement Andrew Smith appeared earlier on Wednesday for the three-day inquest, where he was questioned about the force’s decision not to formally investigate her death.
When an Australian died abroad in suspicious circumstances, the AFP’s initial stance was: “Where the crime has been committed, it must be investigated,” he said.
“We can’t just go to another country and start our own investigation,” he told the court.
Smith said the AFP has sent emails and letters to Mozambique authorities to assist with the investigation, but they have not responded.
Warren’s family (above) have criticized the Australian Federal Police for ‘seven years of tossing between agencies all concerned about who’s pissing whose spot’
“Without the full cooperation and support of the country’s law enforcement agencies, the role we can play is very limited,” he said.
He first visited Mozambique in May, a few months after Cain told the AFP to “move heaven and earth” to find answers for Warren’s family.
“Then it was decided to be present at the senior level,” he said.
Earlier, an AFP chief inspector had been sent to Mozambique, he said.
Smith met with local police and senior officials, including Mozambique’s deputy director of prosecutions, where he said he was first told police were investigating Warren’s death as homicide.
Asked about an early autopsy that found her death a homicide, he said the report was “a piece of paper from a doctor” and would not have influenced AFP’s decision to investigate as much if police had decided it was a murder.
Blake Gray, who volunteered as an honorary consul in Mozambique for DFAT, was sent to Tofo about three days after Warren was found.
He spent a day and a half gathering information and interviewing locals before returning home.
Stepfather David Cafarella described the investigation into Warren’s (above) murder as ‘a mess’
Gray said local police refused to speak to him and state officials were adamant that her death was “an accident.”
“I couldn’t understand that I couldn’t talk to the police who were literally fifty yards away,” he told the court.
The investigation continues.