Chronology of a Murder Part 3: The killing of Toyah Cordingley
Toyah Cordingley Case
What follows is the third and final part of a chronology of the murder of Toyah Cordingley based on statements made to the Cairns Supreme Court in February and March, 2025.
In late March a hung jury could not decide if accused murderer Rajwinder Singh killed former Paws and Claws volunteer Toyah Cordingley at Wangetti Beach, and a retrial was ordered for Monday, November 10.
This is a three-part chronological retelling of what the court heard during the first three-week trial:
Rajwinder Singh’s blue Alpha Romeo was recorded on various types of camera footage travelling south on Sunday, October 21, 2018 - firstly through Smithfield towards Caravonica at 5.14pm.
The vehicle was then seen on CCTV footage from the Lake Placid Apartments on Lake Placid Road at 5.19pm - a road which leads to a river, and not the most direct route through Cairns.
The car was also captured travelling along the western arterial road, through Cairns, south on the Bruce Highway towards Innisfail, passing by a “boat slip” near Mourilyan at 7.46pm, then returning to the Flying Fish Point roundabout near Seymour Street, the location of Mr Singh's home.
An Innisfail traffic camera showed Mr Singh driving past the intersection of his own street, but not turning for home, and heading for Flying Fish Point instead.
Meanwhile, from about 3.30pm, Ms Cordingley’s partner’s friend Joel Cuman said he and Marco Heidenreich spent up until about 9pm north of Wangetti Beach, including more than an hour searching for Mr Heidenreich’s dog to no avail.
Dog Jersey was found three days later with damaged foot pads.
After 7pm, Mr Heidenreich had made more than 10 phone calls to Ms Cordingley – all unanswered – according to phone records produced in court.
Another friend, Toby Petrak, said the pair picked up his torch from his Port Douglas home between 7pm and 7.30pm.
He said Mr Heidenreich then returned to the house without the dog at “around 9pm” and they drank a beer, where Mr Heidenreich was looking upset because he said he had not heard from Ms Cordingley all afternoon.
Mr Petrak said Mr Heidenreich then called again later that night, saying he had found Ms Cordingley’s unlocked car at Wangetti Beach.
The court heard he called out for her after arriving at the beach, then, after she did not reply, called triple-0, Mr Petrak and Ms Cordingley’s family.
Ms Cordingley’s mother Vanessa Gardiner told the court she had an early-morning wake-up call from her 18-year-old son Jack, who told his mum his sister was missing.
She and Toyah’s father Troy Cordingley then drove to Wangetti Beach and spent hours searching for their daughter.
Arriving at the scene at about 3am on Monday, October 22, they called out for her, then sat on a picnic bench for several hours waiting for first light so they could search properly.
That morning, Ms Gardiner found her daughter’s dog Indie tied tightly to a tree in bushland near the beach.
And Mr Cordingley soon after found her body buried in a shallow grave in sand dunes about 14 hours after she was killed.
He noticed there was a mound in the sand set very close to the dunes, so he dug lightly and found a foot beneath the sand.
“I scooped the sand three times, and on the third time, I found a human foot,” he said.
Police later discovered two more bloodstained patches of sand metres away from Ms Cordingley’s shallow grave.
Ms Cordingley’s hat was also found by her family near the body.
That same morning, Mr Singh saw his wife Sukhdeep Kaur briefly, saying he would be back the day after.
But he asked his work colleague Rajkaran Singh to take him to the airport - his colleague told the court Rajwinder Singh appeared to be “carrying a lot of stress”.
Rajkaran Singh told the court “I kept asking ‘is everything fine?’,” and his friend replied “everything is fine”.
Rajwinder Singh left his blue Alfa Romeo at Rajkaran Singh’s house that day and never returned for it.
Mrs Kaur told the court he left their home on Monday afternoon with a “little handbag” saying “I’ll be back tomorrow”, but she never heard from him again.
He flew to Sydney, stayed with his sister Balwinder Singh overnight, and then left for India, telling a booking agent he had to have a one-way ticket “urgently” to see his sick grandparent.
Mrs Kaur reported him missing on Wednesday, October 24, and on Thursday, October 25, Mr Singh contacted his work supervisor to say he needed his severance pay because he would not be returning to his job.
The court heard Mr Singh found out he was wanted in Australia for murder through media reports in India, and was brought in by police in India to be returned to Australia.
In February, 2023, he was extradited back here.
When back in Australian police custody, Mr Singh was heard saying that he saw a masked man kill Ms Cordingley - the jury was played a secret recording made by an undercover police officer posing as a prisoner in the Cairns watch-house in March, 2023.
Mr Singh told the undercover officer he fled the murder scene after witnessing another person kill Ms Cordingley.
"I did not see their faces, they were covered,” he said.
Rajwinder Singh declined to answer questions during the trial.
The jury in the trial of Rajwinder Singh for the murder of Toyah Cordingley was discharged in March after it could not come to a unanimous decision, and the case is now scheduled for a retrial in Cairns Supreme Court starting Monday, November 10.
Support public interest journalism
Help us to continue covering local stories that matter. Please consider supporting below.