Israeli-Arab student murdered in Australia in 'horrific' attack
Police in Melbourne release footage showing the last moments of 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe, whose body was found near a local train station after she’d been violently attacked and murdered.
An Arab-Israeli student has been killed in a late-night attack in Australia while she was speaking on the phone with her sister, police said on Thursday.
Police appealed to the public for help in tracking down the killer of 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe, whose body was found early on Wednesday near the campus of the Melbourne university, where she was studying.
"This was a horrendous, horrific attack inflicted on a completely innocent young woman who was a visitor to our city," Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
Maasarwe, who was reportedly five months into a year-long exchange at Melbourne's LaTrobe University, was riding a tram home from a comedy club to the suburb of Bundoora before she was met by her attacker at around midnight.
Local police released footage showing the student making her way home shortly before the attack.
She was talking on the phone with her sister, who was overseas and raised the alarm after something went awry mid-conversation, police said.
"(Her sister) heard the sound of the phone falling to the ground and heard some voices," DI Stamper said.
Maasarwe's body was found on Wednesday morning by passers-by at 7am about 50m from the stop where she exited the tram.
DI Stamper said the report from the student's sister came in at about the same time.
Police would not confirm reports they were investigating a sexual assault but said known sex offenders are an "active line of inquiry".
Officers retrieved a black baseball cap and a grey T-shirt they believe were worn by the perpetrator from the crime scene, which they described as "very distressing".
The victim's family, who are on their way to Australia, described Maasarwe as happy, adventurous and smart.
"I was in shock, I couldn't believe it... The day before, my wife had said to me, 'We'll have to go to Australia, Australia's very safe, very nice,'" the victim's uncle Rame Maasarwe told national broadcaster ABC from the United States. "We cannot believe that something like this happened in Australia, we think it's very safe there."
Maasarwe was reportedly planning to go to China to work with her father's business after her studies, where one of her sisters also lives. Aiia'a mother as well as two of her other sisters still live in the northern Israeli town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye near Haifa.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said its consul in Canberra, Nir Rubinoff, along with the Department for Israelis Abroad in the Consular Affairs Department of the Foreign Ministry are assisting in repatriating Aiia’s body to Israel for burial.
Police said they were confident of finding the perpetrator.
Hassan Shaalan contributed to this report.
