EXCLUSIVE
A desperate dad who hired a sex worker to investigate his daughter’s murder is threatening to resume his unorthodox probe unless Australian authorities help solve her homicide.
Paul Warren has demanded Australian diplomats give him a thorough update on the investigation being conducted into his daughter Elly’s death by local detectives in Mozambique by the end of the month.
The Melbourne father warned that if he was not satisfied with their progress, he would be left with ‘no choice’ but to return to the south-east African country and renew his own enquiries.
‘I will give them three weeks (and) if no reply I will go over,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr Warren’s daughter was just 20 when she was killed during a night out with friends in the coastal resort village of Tofu on November 8, 2016.
The aspiring marine biologist had been celebrating the end of her six-week volunteer program documenting the country’s endangered coastal reefs when she vanished while heading to a bar for another drink about 1am.
Her body was discovered by a local fisherman four hours later, laying facedown in the dirt outside a public toilet block across the street from the popular night spot.
She had cuts and bruises on her neck and mouth, her singlet was torn open, and her skirt pulled up with her underwear down around her knees.
An aspiring marine biologist, Elly was helping save endangered reefs before she was murdered
Paul Warren says he will never stopping fighting for justice for his murdered daughter, Elly
Elly’s death was initially ruled a drug overdose by local police before two separate toxicology reports revealed there were no illicit substances in her system.
Mozambique authorities finally declared her death a murder last year but said the country’s homicide detectives had been unable to identify her killer.
The concession came on the eve of an inquest into Elly’s death conducted in her home state of Victoria.
Coroner John Cain found Elly might have consumed two or three alcoholic drinks on the night she died but that it was unlikely she had been intoxicated.
He said the popular young environmentalist had died after suffocating on sand but that he was unable to determined how it entered her throat and lungs.
The sand in her lungs was gold-coloured, while the dirt around the toilet block was black, suggesting her body had been moved after she was murdered.
Never far from the water, Elly spent six weeks diving off the coast of Mozambique
Many of the key circumstances surrounding her death remained unknown because the coroner’s court, Australian Federal Police and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had all failed to obtained the brief of evidence compiled by Mozambique’s national criminal investigation service.
As a result, Mr Cain said he was unable to determine if Elly had died outside the toilet block or had been moved after she had been killed, if she had been sexually assault on her final night alive or even confirm if she had been murdered.
Mr Caine said it was now up to the local instructing judge in Mozambique to determine whether there was enough evidence to continue pursuing the investigation into Elly’s death or abandon it.
‘Without knowing what is held by the instructing judge and the investigating police in Mozambique, I do not know if there is an identified person or persons of interest, [if] an active investigation under way or whether all possible leads have been pursued and the investigation is stalled,’ he said in handing down his findings last December.
Mr Warren said his family had been devastated by the lack of co-operation between Australian and Mozambique authorities since Elly’s death and feared investigators were uninterested in finding his daughter’s killer.
Elly’s body was found dumped outside this gritty public toilet block near the heart of Tofo
The retired industrial engineer said he had made repeated requests for updates from DFAT about the status of the Mozambique investigation in the wake of the inquest – most recently on Monday – only for his emails to be ignored.
‘I am hoping for a response this time from DFAT with my recent email,’ he said. ‘If not, I will have no choice but to go back over.
‘They thought after the inquest it will fall away and the family will give up. The thing is, there is still an investigation going on over there as I have not heard otherwise.
‘I now feel it’s time to visit Mozambique again and ask to speak to a government official to obtain the facts myself.’
Despite being warned not to disrupt the official investigation, Mr Warren has made two trips to Mozambique and poured his life savings – about $80,000 – into conducting his own private inquiries into Elly’s death.
Elly was just days away from returning home after the trip of a lifetime when she was killed
He now suspects Elly was killed in a bungled robbery attempt on the beach before being dumped by the toilet block and the scene staged to look like a sexual assault.
In 2020, he got a tip off that a local crime lord had been overheard boasting about her death.
The man had distinctive tattoos and was known to hang out at a pub just around the corner from where Elly was last seen.
‘The town where Elly was killed, it’s a small place, and nothing happens there without this guy knowing about it,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Either he’s murdered my little girl, or he knows who did.’
He was unable to return to investigate the lead himself due to the then strict coronavirus lockdowns but teamed up with a private detective to investigate remotely.
The shrine Paul Warren has built in honour of his daughter Elly in his Melbourne home
Together they hired a sex worker from a nearby village, and paid her to move to Tofo and infiltrate the gang in a bid to try to glean more information about Elly’s death.
The sting ran for about a month before the sex worker began to fear for her life and they brought the operation to a close.
He is now imploring the AFP to offer to assist the Mozambique authorities in a complete re-examination of the homicide, fearing local detectives were ill-equipped to handle the probe.
‘The AFP kept telling me not to worry, that the Mozambique police would be conducting a proper investigation and I shouldn’t go over there and get in the way,’ he said.
‘But the local police simply weren’t equipped to deal with a murder investigation, and I soon realised that the AFP didn’t want to get involved.
‘That’s when I knew I was going to have to do it myself.
‘My greatest regret is that I didn’t jump on a plane the moment I found out she was dead, instead I trusted that the AFP would do their job.
Paul Warren has spent eight years investigating the death of his daughter, Elly
‘Looking back at those first few weeks after Elly’s death, I’m totally disgusted with their incompetence and their inaction – and I’m still disgusted by it.
‘It’s been over eight years now, and I’m still the only one doing anything. It shouldn’t be up to me to be conducting investigations and interviewing suspects.’
The AFP said they were engaging with the Mozambique investigation through all appropriate channels.
‘The investigation into the death of Elly Warren was the jurisdiction of Mozambique authorities,’ a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The AFP through our senior liaison officer has continued to engage Mozambique authorities regularly since Elly Warren’s death in 2016, including offering significant levels of support to Mozambique authorities via on-site meetings and regular communications.
‘The AFP is committed to engaging with the foreign law enforcement community and will continue to leverage the AFP’s relationships and vast capabilities to support Australians at home and abroad.’
