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Members of the jury overseeing a high-profile Australian homicide case have traveled to the isolated beach where the young woman was discovered.

The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a bladed weapon and placed in a shallow resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has been told.

The remains were discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline 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 northern Australia.

Jury Visit to Crime Scene

The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.

In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers chose polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Location Particulars

The court members were guided around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.

Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones indicated where the vehicle had been parked.

The trip was intended to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the case and no testimony was presented.

Context of the Trial

Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and relatives.

He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the state said.

Prosecution Case

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

The victim was discovered wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings absent.

Those objects were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution allege.

Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found secured to a tree concealed in bushland about 100 feet from the burial site.

No murder weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.

But the prosecution says the evidence – though indirect – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

This will include evidence that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was extremely more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.

The jury has previously been told testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a vehicle belonging to the defendant.

Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the prosecution has claimed.

Defence Stance

"While authorities were finding 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 defense is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer described his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."

He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.

Additional Evidence

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities excluded as a person of interest, was among those who gave evidence previously.

The trial was informed he was an immediate police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's disappearance, prior to her body were found.

Photographs depicting the witness on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.

The trial will return to the standard environment of the courthouse on Tuesday.