
We need to remember Toyah Cordingley.
The vibrant 24-year-old, a foster carer for cats and dogs, was murdered on October 21, on a beautiful but quiet stretch of beach near Cairns.
Far from the big cities down south, Toyah’s death didn’t initially get as much coverage as the deaths of Melbourne’s Eurydice Dixon or Jill Meagher. Perhaps it all seemed too distant. Perhaps there weren’t enough details available at first.
But this “beautiful soul”, so full of love for animals and other people, needs to have her story told. She needs to be remembered.
Toyah’s mother, Vanessa Gardiner, says she was “full of life” from the day she was born. She loved animals from a young age. She also loved everything to do with Harry Potter.
In Port Douglas, Toyah worked at the Paws and Claws Refuge and Boarding Centre.
“She had a way with animals, even the most loud, vicious animals – she could calm them in minutes,” local councillor Michael Kerr said in the Brisbane Times.
Later, Toyah moved to Cairns, where she got a job at a pharmacy. She had a boyfriend, Marco Heidenreich, who shared her love of animals.
