I saw this on the news at midday today and was heartbroken for this wonderful young woman, and her friends and family. I cannot imagine what they must be going through and I hope the questions they, and the rest of us, have about who did this are answered quickly so that that part of their suffering at least does not drag on.
It still certainly possible she was in the park at some point, the article linked below states:
"A secondary crime scene has been established in parkland opposite the area where the woman’s body was found.
SES crews and detectives entered the heavy bushland in Bundoora Park to search the area about 7.30pm on Wednesday.
A crime scene was established some time later. Access to the park via Fairway Drive has been cordoned off while police remain at the scene."
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...r-body-found-in-bundoora-20190116-p50rm4.html
At the beginning of that article it also says that she was believed to still be breathing when she was found at 7am, so that is 6 to 8 hours between when she was attacked and when she was found. So perhaps she was taken to the park and later either taken back to where she was found or she may have tried to make her way back from the park after the attack to find help. I do think those scenarios are less likely than her being attacked where she was found, especially considering the park could be a secondary crime scene for any number of other reasons (my first thought is that it could be where they found the hat and t-shirt?) but just wanted to mention that.
I agree but I did also want to mention that from what I've read it isn't certain that she was followed from the city on the tram - you would think it would be easy to identify the perpetrator in the CCTV footage from the tram, particularly if they were wearing the hat and t-shirt that have been found and got off at the same stop as her. The perpetrator could have known that lots of students get off the tram at that stop to walk to student accommodation on campus, and they could have been waiting for someone to get off the tram alone either at the tram stop, near the shopping centre, or in the park.
They may have been a student or lived in on campus accommodation themselves. Which brings me to my next thoughts. I am really wary about posting this, because it really seems most likely to me that this was a crime of opportunity by a stranger or relative stranger, and the last thing I would want to do would be to add to the pain that those who knew and loved her are going through. But I did want to note that in the article linked below, it mentions that:
- she was in a WhatsApp chat with a group of other students from her course
- they became concerned when she stopped replying
- in an interview with a friend of hers from university, whose name was not used, he states that he knew she was at a comedy gig that evening, as she had invited him and other friends of their (but he did not go to the gig)
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...ntre-was-israeli-student-20190117-p50ruz.html
So it is possible that she had also invited people in the WhatsApp group to gig and that she was chatting to them about her evening, how it was, that she was leaving to go home, and the like. To me, that seems like the sort of conversation that would make me feel worried if someone stopped replying, rather than if she and her friends were talking about anything else. That is to say, it also seems possible, if extremely unlikely, that someone she knew through university could have been aware of her movements without actually being with her and targeted her between the tram and her apartment.
I am especially wary about posting this but I did also wonder why the name at the bottom of the card in the fifth image in the article above was so furiously and extensively crossed out and replaced with 'SISI' or something? I assume the person who wrote the card did that because I assume there would have been a lot of people around that area, meaning a stranger wouldn't have had time to defile that tribute - but I could be wrong. Again, there are a million and one reasons someone might have chosen to sign their card another way than what they first wrote, but it struck me as odd - as did the content of the card, if I'm being honest. Two sentences about how the writer of the message feels, and the only sentence about Aya (or Aia? Aiia? I have seen her name spelled multiple ways in the articles I've read) is saying she is in a better place. Of course, those are very normal things to say when you are grieving someone, and if they were a friend from her English course I'm assuming English also isn't their first language so that might be why I found the 'tone' a little odd. I am really sorry if this seems like hurtful speculation, I will edit this if people feel I should remove these remarks.
Again, my heart is just broken for beautiful Aia and her loved ones