Toyah Cordingley’s horrific 2018 murder—she was just 24—rocked Australia, and now her killer is facing justice at last. 

It all began on October 21, 2018. Toyah set off to Wangetti Beach for a casual stroll with her dog. Hours later, she never came home. Her panic-stricken family hit the sand searching for her, only to be thrust into a nightmare. In a heartbreaking twist, it was Toyah’s own father who made the gruesome discovery—his beloved daughter’s lifeless body, partially entombed in the dunes, her throat slashed and body riddled with at least 26 stab wounds. The family dog, still alive, was found tightly bound to a tree nearby, alone but unharmed.

Cops quickly zeroed in on Rajwinder Singh, a nurse with a sinister secret. The day after Toyah’s body was found, Singh had already fled the country on a flight bound for India, sparking an international manhunt that would last years. The saga dragged on, but the relentless efforts of Queensland police and global law enforcement finally paid off—Singh was extradited all the way back to Australia to face the music.

Months of courtroom twists and emotional outbursts followed. After an earlier trial left jurors deadlocked, the retrial in Cairns gripped the nation. It took the jury just seven hours to unanimously convict 41-year-old Singh of murder on Monday, December 8. The next day, Justice Lincoln Crowley wasted no time handing down a life sentence, with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Toyah’s stunningly violent death spawned outrage and a movement for women’s safety across Far North Queensland. The community rallied, with marches, candlelit vigils, and Toyah’s name emblazoned on bumpers from Cairns to the outback. “A long-awaited day for our family,” said her mother, Vanessa Gardiner, outside court—though, she admitted, it was nothing to celebrate. Emotional and resolute, Gardiner called her daughter a bright, innocent soul and denounced Singh as unforgivable, lamenting the countless lives his actions destroyed—including those of Toyah’s loved ones and Singh’s own family.

Inside court, grief turned to raw fury. Toyah’s father reportedly shouted, “Rot in hell, you bastard,” at the convicted nurse, later expressing bittersweet gratitude to those who fought for justice. “Today’s verdict means something,” he said, “but nothing brings Toyah back. The world is poorer now without her.”

For those who loved Toyah, the pain endures—but so does the memory of a young woman taken far too soon, and the fierce community that demanded her killer be brought to justice.