Fears have grown a man accused of murdering Isla Bell may never face trial after it was revealed the Melbourne teenager’s body was so damaged by a garbage truck that authorities have not been able to determine how she died.
Marat Ganiev, 54, of St Kilda, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday where horrific details about the alleged crime were revealed as part of a preliminary hearing.
The court heard forensic experts were unable to determine how the 19-year old died due to the state of her body upon its discovery at a tip in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s south-east, six weeks after she was allegedly killed.
Police allege Ganiev murdered Ms Bell just after midnight on October 7 last year, with his mate Eyal Yaffe, 58, accused of helping him dispose of her body.
Forensic pathologist Hans De Boer told the court experts could not determine how Ms Bell died due to severe decomposition and damage caused within the garbage truck that dumped her body at the tip.
Devastated friends and family of the teenager packed into the courtroom to hear the shocking evidence.
Detectives allege Yaffe became involved in the alleged crime after receiving a call from Ganiev a day after Ms Bell is said to have been killed.
The following day, he allegedly drove to Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment and dropped off a new black fridge, returning on October 17 to remove the old one wrapped in plastic.
Two men have been charged after police found suspected human remains in their search for 19-year-old Isla Bell (pictured)
Eyal Yaffe leaving Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday
That fridge was later found to have contained Ms Bell’s battered remains.
‘It’s not possible to exclude that all injuries were sustained postmortem,’ Dr Boer said.
Under cross examination by Mr Yaffe’s barrister Ian Hill, KC, the court heard the doctor could find no evidence Ms Bell had been strangled to death.
Just last week, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard a man initially accused of murdering and dumping an elderly woman in a garbage bin was allowed to plead guilty to her manslaughter over similar post mortem damage to her body.
Stephen Fleming, 47, admitted the charge after accepting a deal that came with a sentence indication that will see him eligible for parole in just seven years.
Unlike Fleming, Homicide Squad detectives have suggested they have a strong case against the pair despite not knowing exactly how Ms Bell died.
During a bail application for Yaffe last year, the court heard police believed to have captured snippets of Ms Bell’s murder on CCTV.
Homicide Squad detectives allege a camera outside Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment complex captured what appeared to be him attacking Ms Bell.
Marat Ganiev, 53, of St Kilda appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with murdering Isla Bell
Yaffe (pictured) is accused of helping the man who allegedly murdered Isla Bell conceal his crime
Cameras recorded Ms Bell entering his apartment at 9.27pm on October 5, but she never left alive, police alleged.
From a gap in the front kitchen window, police allege Ms Bell’s head could be seen ‘whipping around’ as she was struck by Ganiev.
‘She falls to the ground and Ganiev can then be seen striking her on the ground of the kitchen,’ court documents stated.
‘What appears to be Bell’s head can be seen rising up before being pushed back down by Ganiev’s arm.’
The footage allegedly captured Ms Bell alive between 12.43am until 2am when she vanished from sight.
Police allege Ganiev went to work cleaning the apartment over the following days.
Ms Bell had allegedly moved in with Ganiev just two days earlier – a day after her frantic mother reported Ms Bell missing to police.
During that hearing, the court heard Ms Bell had thought she had found the man of her dreams in the days before she was allegedly brutally murdered by a man more than twice her age.
Isla Bell (pictured) was last seen leaving her Brunswick home, in Melbourne’s inner city, about 6pm on October 4. Her remains were found at a tip six weeks later
Police alleged Ms Bell texted her friend just hours before her alleged murder expressing her happiness.
In a Snapchat post sent on October 7, Ms Bell, who was last seen leaving her Brunswick home in Melbourne three days earlier on October 4, told her friend that she had ‘found the best sugar daddy’, court documents stated.
Ms Bell told her friend a ‘sugar daddy’ had lavished her with gifts and ‘saved her from sex traffickers’.
On Monday, the court heard Ms Bell had struggled with drug addiction leading up to her death, with traces of methamphetamine, cocaine, cannabis and methadone found in her system.
Upon Ganiev’s arrest, Ms Bell’s heartbroken mother Justine Spokes issued a gut-wrenching statement in memory of her daughter.
‘I am so, so sorry my darling daughter,’ she said at the time.
‘I could not protect you from your complex illnesses and this cruel world.
‘I was so proud of your choices this year, your strength to endure despite your suffering.
Ms Bell’s mum Justine Spokes addressed the media upon her daughter’s alleged killer’s arrest last year
Isla Bell was allegedly murdered by a man she had only just met
‘All you ever wanted was to create, make and nurture life, to love and be loved.
‘We were so much looking forward to being reunited as a family again; my heart aches and cannot reconcile that’s not going to happen.’
She said her daughter was ‘the gentlest soul, the kindest human and free spirited’.
‘I will connect to you in spirit my care bear and no one can take that connection away from us,’ she added.
The hearing continues.
