CALL TO UPDATE SIGNS AFTER SUSPECT’S ARREST

A CAIRNS businessman who donated prime roadside real estate to call for information on the killing of Toyah Cordingley has suggested updated signs were needed after a major breakthrough in the case last week.

In November 2018, one month after Ms Cordingley’s body was discovered in a shallow grave at Wangetti Beach, two huge roadside signs were installed on the side of a storage shed at Yorkeys Knob.

The signs displayed the Crime Stoppers phone number before it was publicly known that suspect Rajwinder Singh had already left the country.

Shed owner Rodney Meares said he leased the property from landowners, the Lemura family, who were fully supportive of the signs after discussion with Ms Cordingley’s grandmother.

“Everyone was happy for it to happen,” he said.

Four years after the signs went up Mr Meares said the square-shaped banner at the front of the shed had to be removed to gain access to the building.

“We are not going to pull (the letterbox-shaped sign) down (but) it would be nice if we can change it,” he said.

Buoyed by the arrest of former Innisfail nurse Mr Singh last Friday the Cairns community has come together to demand justice through a new sticker campaign after the national success of a 2018 print run in which 300,000 decals were created.

This week 10,000 new stickers demanding “justice for Toyah” were printed by Copy Shop Print and Signs, however plans for fresh signs for the roadside shed have not been announced.

At a conclusion to a four-year manhunt that landed Mr Singh in a New Deli jail Mr Meares said he was “very happy.”

“It took some more innocence from the town, but you feel like now it can get solved,” he said.

“It’s good to know someone is going to be held accountable because (otherwise) it would be more of a sour flavour in your mouth.”