‘RAJ DID NOT KILL TOYAH’
Family of Indian nurse at centre of case ‘not capable of murder’
AN Indian nurse living at Innisfail had been showing signs of a troubled mind but was not capable of murdering Toyah Cordingley on a Cairns beach, his family says.
Rajwinder Singh (right) is a person of interest in the high-profile police murder investigation of Ms Cordingley who was killed at Wangetti Beach, 40km north of Cairns.
Mr Singh’s brother-in-law Harpreet Singh exclusively told the Cairns Post he was a quiet man but had been under a lot of tension from work.
It is believed Rajwinder Singh has fled Innisfail for India leaving behind a wife and three children.
RAJWINDER Singh was behaving strangely before he vanished overseas the day after the murder of Toyah Cordingley.
But he’s not responsible for her death, his family says.
The Innisfail enrolled nurse of almost seven years – a person of interest in the high-profile police murder investigation – showed signs of a troubled mind.
He left behind his wife, two young children and a baby and his full-time job at Innisfail Hospital – and has made no contact since.
His family yesterday told how he flew out to his hometown of Amritsar in Punjab, India on the day Toyah’s body was found seven weeks ago.
They listed him as a missing person but he is believed to be living in a village near Anoopgarh on the remote north-west Pakistani/Indian border.
Queensland homicide detectives and Australian Federal Police are liaising with Indian law enforcement bodies to track him down.
“Raj is not capable of murder,’’ his brother-in-law Harpreet Singh exclusively told The Cairns Post at the family home in Innisfail.
“He is too quiet, too afraid. He was under a lot of tension from his work.
“But if he is guilty, we are yet to see any evidence to prove it.”
The Indian nurse had become troubled by his work treating elderly patients dying in hospital, Mr Singh said.
He’d disappear from home for days – spending long hours at secluded tropical beaches – and he stopped speaking.
But the timing of his disappearance and booking a flight to India the day Toyah was killed at Wangetti Beach, 40km north of Cairns, was coincidental, Mr Singh said.
“He was always going to the beach, he’d go to the beaches near here or up north of Cairns. He was mentally upset and liked to go away from here.”
In the week before Toyah’s murder Mr Singh said his brother-in-law had disappeared from home for three days with no contact, leading his worried family to make a missing persons report.
Ms Cordingley, a beloved 24-year-old “beautiful soul”, a pharmacy assistant and animal welfare volunteer, was killed walking her dog on Wangetti Beach about 2.30pm on Sunday, October 21.
Her heartbroken father Troy found the dog tied up and her slain body “messed up” with “visible and violent injuries” buried in sand early the next day.
It is understood that police have tracked the Indian nurse’s mobile phone and identified his car as being in the same location as the murder scene.
His car was captured on CCTV security cameras driving erratically in Cairns in the hours after the murder before he allegedly returned home to Innisfail and booked an international flight that night.
Forensic police are working to get a DNA match taken from Toyah’s body – she fought for her life and it is believed left scratch and bite marks on her attacker – to catch her killer.
“Police told us they have no evidence that Raj killed her, but he is a person of interest,’’ Mr Singh said.
Four weeks ago a police taskforce raided the family home in Innisfail, cordoning it off as a crime scene, and seized personal items.
Innisfail’s Indian community, with many multi-generational Sikh families in the district, is deeply shaken by the latest development as some rallied in support of the wife and children yesterday. “We live in a small community,’’ Mr Singh said.
“How can we live with this, with this suspicion, when we have no answers?”
Police have been tightlipped about the top-level line of enquiry as emotions run high with tens of thousands of people rallying behind a campaign to honour Toyah and bring her killer to justice.