Posted on November 29, 2018

Mystery Surrounds Death of Young White Woman in Mozambique

Kylie Stevens, Daily Mail, November 27, 2018

A grieving mother has called on the Prime Minister to help her family get answers two years after her daughter’s death in Mozambique.

Elly Rose Warren, 20, was discovered by a fisherman in a toilet block near a market on Tofo Beach in Mozambique on November 9, 2016.

Ms Warren was working volunteering for a marine conservation program in Tofo when her life was cut short just days before she was due to fly home.

Her devastated parents Paul Warren and Nicole Cafarella still do not know how their daughter died.

Mr Warren even visited Tofo in a desperate bid to find answers but found the police investigation was ‘botched beyond repair’.

Elly Warren

Police recorded Ms Warren’s death as a ‘drug overdose’ but Mr Warren says there was no evidence of drugs in her system.

Her family believe she was murdered.

Ms Cafarella recently launched a petition on Change.org which called n Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s help in seeking justice for her daughter.

The petition has so far received almost 46,500 signatures.

‘As Elly was an Australian citizen travelling in an overseas country, Australia has no authority to assist or carry out their own investigation into her death, her death must be investigated solely by the Mozambique police,’ the petition states

‘We ask Scott Morrison to intervene in this case to put pressure on the Mozambique Government to allow Australia to provide an investigation team to work with the Mozambique police to solve Elly’s murder and give her some justice.’

It’s understood Ms Warren attended a party at a bar on the night she died before she walked back to her hostel alone.

Tragically, she never checked in.

‘Elly’s extended family and friends still find it hard to accept that she is gone,’ the petition states.

‘A bright, happy, hard working, determined young girl with her whole life ahead of her, lost at the hands of a murderer for no apparent reason.

‘Elly loved travelling, she loved Africa, the African people and marine life and wanted to make a difference in marine and wildlife conservation.’

Multiple autopsies revealed Elly died of asphyxiation from sand and had suffered facial injuries.

Toxicology tests revealed she had no drugs and a minimal amount of alcohol in her system.

Accompanied by 60 Minutes, Mr Warren recently made a heartbreaking visit to Tofo, where his daughter spent her final hours alive.

‘In the short time that he was there, he was given various witness accounts in relation to her death, photographs and suggestions as to who may have been involved with her death, it wasn’t difficult to obtain this information,’ the petition states.

‘Our concern is the lack of investigation from Mozambique police and the lack of support from the Australian Government in our quest to find Elly’s murderer.’

In Tofo, Mr Warren found a man who had a photograph of his dead daughter.

Ms Warren was lying face down in the sand, her legs apart, her underwear around her knees, covered in black sand.

‘Everybody that looks at it knows straight out that Elly was murdered,’ he told 60 Minutes.

Mr Warren also spoke to the woman who identified his daughter on the day her body was found.

The woman said that Ms Warren’s body had been moved after the initial discovery.

‘It’s more frustrating than anything else, that nothing’s being done,’ Mr Warren said.

‘The only conclusion I keep coming back to in all of this is that the local police don’t want to acknowledge this death as a murder because it’ll damage the region’s lucrative tourism industry.’

It’s been three weeks since the petition was launched and while federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has publicly pledged his support to help the family, there’s still been no word from Mr Morrison.

Mr Shorten has since written to Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson.

It’s understood a similar letter was directed to Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin.

‘I urge you to increase diplomatic attention and pressure to facilitate greater Australian involvement in further investigations,’ Mr Shorten wrote.

‘It is important that we are able to ensure complete confidence in the investigation of Elly’s death, see that anyone involved is brought to justice, and provide certainty to Elly’s family.’