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Jurors involved in a widely publicized Australian homicide case have traveled to the remote beach where the victim was located.

Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow grave with little or no hope of surviving, the court has been told.

Her body were discovered by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

Jury Visit to Beach

The jury of 12 individuals plus three alternates attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on the start of the week local time.

In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys chose polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Location Details

The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four markers indicated where the victim's car had been parked.

The trip was designed to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the trial and no testimony was given.

Context of the Trial

Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, the accused flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, family and parents.

He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.

State Case

It is alleged that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.

The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with her attire and belongings absent.

Those objects were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors contend.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a tree concealed in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.

No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.

But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was comprised findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."

This will involve testimony that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The court has previously been told evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has claimed.

Defence Position

"As the police were discovering Toyah's body, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."

He also foreshadowed evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

The defense attorney has also said he will testify about individuals "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.

Additional Testimony

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who gave evidence previously.

The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were discovered.

Images showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any way.

The trial will resume to the standard environment of the courtroom on the next day.