Monika Chetty: Major ruling in case of woman who died after being doused with eight litres of acid in the ‘most baffling’ case of cop’s career

The mystery surrounding a nurse and mother of three who died after being found in bushland and doused with acid is no closer to solving a decade later, an inquest has heard.

Monika Chetty was found seriously injured and with peeling skin in bushland in Sydney’s west on the evening of January 3, 2014.

Four weeks later she died of complications from acid burns to 80 percent of her body.

The 39-year-old, who was found with extensive acid burns to her face and body, had been estranged from her family since 2010 and was sleeping rough.

Evidence submitted to the NSW coroner’s court suggests Ms Chetty had been given almost eight liters of hydrochloric acid weeks before she was found.

Before her death, she told police she was curled up on a park bench in Liverpool when someone approached her for money and cigarettes before dousing her with the chemical.

She said she went to hospital but there were no beds, but due to the extent of her injuries it is unlikely she was turned away, coroner’s lawyer Christine Melis previously told the court.

Police also cast doubt on Ms Chetty’s version of events, believing she had deliberately misled them about the location of the attack to protect herself and her family from reprisals.

Magistrate Elaine Truscott said the 39-year-old’s death was caused by the burns and was the “result of murder by an unknown person or persons” in findings lodged at Burwood Local Court on Thursday.

After clinging to life for four weeks, Mrs Chetty, then a qualified nurse, died.

The inquest heard evidence that Ms Chetty was ‘involved in activities and had links which could lead to persons having a motive and opportunity to harm her’.

However, Mrs Truscott was unable to establish how she was burned or who carried out the attack.

The 39-year-old, who was found with extensive acid burns to her face and body, had been estranged from her family since 2010 and was sleeping rough.

The former deputy state coroner urged police to continue investigating the unsolved murder.

“I truly regret that this inquest has failed to resolve the many questions surrounding Monika’s death and has not brought anyone to justice,” she said.

Mrs Chetty, a former nurse who became homeless after divorcing her husband in 2009, was distanced from her family and had a significant gambling addiction.

She had told a social worker: ‘Someone poured something on me after I didn’t give him money.’

But when nurses questioned her about previous burns she suffered in 2012 and 2013, she told them it was due to frying eggs and other cooking crimes.

After acid was poured on her, she continued to use public transportation and beg for money at a hospital.

She repeatedly refused help from people while homeless and instead only sought cash, leading police at the time to believe she was under pressure to give someone money.

Detective James Johnson of the Green Valley Police Department described the case as the “most baffling” of his career.

‘In my 41 years in law enforcement, this is the most astonishing. I cannot fathom the circumstances leading up to this,” he told reporters at the time.

‘She’s covered in black spots. They are full thickness burns.

“I think she would have been in absolute agony, and it’s amazing to have survived this long.”