She Was Found Murdered On A Beach With Her Throat Filled With Sand, And Her Dad's On The Hunt To Catch Her Killer

On November 9, 2016, 20-year-old Elly Warren from Australia was found dead at a beach in Tofo, Mozambique, by a local fisherman.

She was on a six-week solo trip in Africa and had gone to Tofo for a volunteer ocean research mission. The local police initially ruled her death an overdose. Four days later, the report was changed to "homicide" to match the autopsy's results.

Elly was found face down in the sand. Her bikini bottoms were down around her ankles, her black T-shirt was torn, and her throat was filled with sand.

She was less than a meter away from the entrance to the women's restroom area. Her official cause of death was asphyxia. She had inhaled sand into her lower airways. Her mouth and neck were covered with bruises.

Elly was an aspiring marine biologist. She was adventurous and had a zest for life. Her trip to Mozambique was a dream come true.

She spent much of the six weeks diving in the Indian Ocean to record the sea life. She planned to attend James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, in 2017.

"Elly was always so happy, beautifully defiant, strong-willed and rebellious and always had a smile on her face," said her father, Paul Warren. "Any father would be proud of her."

A decade later, Elly's family is in the dark as to how she really died. Her father, Paul, is now 65 years old and his mission to find out who killed her is still going strong.

Paul believes that the authorities have failed his daughter and that corruption is involved. He also blames a lack of proactivity by the Australian Federal Police.

Uuganbayar - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only - pictured above is a beach

Paul has traveled to Mozambique himself to gather evidence in Tofo. He visited the same location where Elly's body was found. He was able to find the spot because of the fisherman who had discovered her body. The fisherman had actually taken a picture of the gruesome scene.

On the night that Elly died, she was with friends she had met at Casa Barry Beach Lodge, the hostel where she was staying. That hostel is now closed.

They met up for drinks at 6:30 p.m. One of the friends, Jade O'Shea, a traveler who worked at the Casa Barry Beach Lodge, reported that Elly only drank water because she was going scuba diving the next day and didn't want a hangover.

Later, she left her friends and walked along the main beach to return to her hostel. It was then that Elly must have been attacked. She suffocated when her head was pushed into the sand during an attempted assault.

Autopsies showed that her mouth and lungs were filled with sand from the beach. However, Elly's body was found near the women's toilet block. The sand was dark gray there, which did not match the sand in her lungs.

In addition, the fisherman's photo and the photos of the crime scene taken by police were different. The position of Elly's body had changed. And, in the police photos, her ripped black T-shirt had been replaced with an unripped one. This suggests that her body was moved after she died.

Paul thinks that Elly was killed by local men who may be part of an organized crime network. In 2023, he even received a letter from authorities in Mozambique saying that they have suspects, but not enough evidence to charge them with Elly's murder.

Paul wants to continue putting pressure on police in Australia and Mozambique to track down his daughter's killers.

"The investigation into Elly's death was flawed from the start, and unless the system changes, more families will suffer. I don't want another family to go through what we go through every day," said Paul.

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