Jury 'Deadlocked' in Murder Case Where Woman's Body Was Found Buried on the Beach by Her 'Horrified' Father: Reports

• A jury in Australia was “deadlocked” and failed to reach a decision in a murder case on Tuesday, March 18 following the October 2018 death of Toyah Cordingley, 24
• The victim was found dead on a beach in Far North Queensland by her devastated father, Troy
• Rajwinder Singh, 40, has been accused of the killing but the jury was unable to decide whether he was guilty of murder at the trial in Supreme Court in Cairns, per reports

A jury in a murder trial has been discharged after being unable to decide on a verdict after a 24-year-old woman was discovered dead on a beach in Australia, a court has heard.

On Tuesday, March 18, the hung jury at the Supreme Court in Cairns was unable to reach a decision as to whether the accused, Rajwinder Singh, 40, was guilty of the murder of Toyah Cordingley, per the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

The victim was found dead on Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland on Oct. 22, 2018, the news agency previously reported. It’s thought she’d been killed the day before her body was discovered after she went missing on a dog walk.

Singh, from the nearby town of Innisfail, has pleaded not guilty to murder, according to the AAP.

Toyah’s body was found after her father, Troy, noticed an unusual mound in the sand. “I dropped down to my knees and I scooped the sand three times, and on the third scoop, there was a foot,” Troy told the jury last month, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“I reeled back. I was horrified. I yelled out ‘Help me, help me.’ I was shocked, stunned,” he added, according to the AAP.

Per the ABC, forensic pathologist Dr. Paul Botterill previously told the jury that the victim suffered an “extraordinarily deep” 17-centimeter neck wound. She also had injuries to her abdomen, chest and fingers.

Tuesday, March 18 marked the third day of deliberations in the case. The jury told Justice James Henry in a note that they were “still deadlocked and had no further questions or evidence to consider” shortly after noon, according to the ABC.

“I thank you for your diligence,” Justice Henry said, per the outlet.

Prosecutors stated that the suspect — a former nurse who is originally from Buttar Kalan in the Indian state of Punjab — didn’t have a motive for killing the victim, per the BBC.

The ABC reported that there had been “several people” at the beach on the day of Toyah’s death, and some stated they “saw a suspicious man staring at them.” However, there aren’t thought to be any witnesses to the killing, per the outlet.

Justice Henry told the court that in order to find Singh guilty, the jury would need to present enough evidence to prove that he was the killer over three potential others named by the defence or the possibility that an unknown person could have committed the crime, the outlet stated.

“Probably guilty is not enough,” Justice Henry told the jury, per the ABC. “The prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

During a hearing last month, Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane suggested the victim may have been buried alive, per news.com.au, saying she was “buried shortly before or after her death.”

Crane suggested that tracking on the victim’s phone indicated that she left — or that the phone was taken away from — the beach at 5 p.m. local time on the day she went missing, per the AAP. She was likely already dead at that time, the outlet stated, citing Crane.

Her phone tracking matched several places that a blue Alpha Romeo sedan was seen on CCTV driving to Lake Placid Holiday Apartments, Crane previously said, per the news agency. 

“Rajwinder Singh owned a blue Alpha Romeo, a similar vehicle,” Crane told the jury last month, according to the AAP.

AAP previously reported that a male DNA sample “2000 times more likely” to be from the suspect than a random man was also found on the victim’s fingernails.

Singh left Australia and headed to New Delhi the day after the victim’s body was found, per the news agency. He was not seen again until November 2022 when he was found in India, his native country.

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According to the ABC, Toyah’s boyfriend, Marco Heidenreich, was the first person to raise the alarm about her disappearance. Heidenreich has denied involvement in his girlfriend’s death, per the AAP, despite previously admitting that his stepfather — a former Cairns police officer — was friendly with a detective working on the murder case.

The case has been adjourned and there will be a mention hearing on Wednesday, March 26 to set a date for a retrial, per the ABC.

Queensland Courts and Angus Edwards KC, defending Singh, didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.