Sunset was one of Audrey Griffin’s favourite times of day. On Thursday evening thousands of Central Coast residents wearing white gathered at Terrigal beach to honour the 19-year-old university student and talented sportswoman who was murdered on her way home from a night out in Gosford on 23 March.
“As the sun goes down, I ask you to turn around and watch it together,” said her mother, Kathleen Kirby.
Friends and relatives scattered frangipanis on the beach and called on the community to honour Griffin by demanding government action to address the national crisis of violence against women.
“This kind of event is something where the community want to show the family they care about their loss,” said Sharon Walsh, the chair of the Central Coast Domestic Violence Committee.
“And it’s also a way of saying to those who have the capacity to fund change that we want change.
“The bulk of violence against women obviously occurs in the home … however the tragic circumstances of this young woman remind us that women of many ages can’t really feel safe anywhere.”
Walsh said voters this federal election would have to “go rummaging” to find anything political parties had to say about domestic violence and women’s safety.
Both major parties announced funding commitments this week that aim to build on the 10-year national plan to end violence against women and children. But before this week the issue had barely rated a mention in the campaign.
According to Australian Femicide Watch, Griffin is the 22nd woman killed due to violence this year.
Hours after Thursday’s vigil, it was reported that the man charged with her murder, 53-year-old Adrian Torrens, had been found dead in a cell at Sydney’s Silverwater correctional complex. Police were not treating the death as suspicious.
Griffin’s murder was initially treated as nothing beyond a tragic accident.
The keen athlete had been on a night out with friends at Hotel Gosford before disappearing on her way home. New South Wales police said she was last seen on The Entrance Road in Erina at 3am on Sunday 23 March. Her body was found partially submerged in Erina Creek, just steps away from one of the coast’s busiest roads.
Forensic and postmortem examinations did not point to suspicious circumstances, according to police. The death of the rugby league player, Iron Man competitor and beach lover was referred to the coroner.
Then, almost four weeks after the body’s discovery, the case took a 180-degree turn.
On Thursday last week police released a grainy CCTV image from outside the Elanora hotel in East Gosford. A man, described as having a dark complexion, medium build, wearing a red singlet and carrying a black backpack, was wanted to help with the coronial matter.
“We are not implicating that this man was somehow involved in the incident,” Det Acting Insp Samantha Richards said in the appeal.
By the next morning, “other sources” had come forward with enough information to elevate the case to a homicide investigation and, on Easter Monday, police made a startling breakthrough: 53-year-old Torrens was arrested in Surry Hills, Sydney, and charged with Griffin’s murder as well as 11 unrelated domestic violence matters. Police allege Torrens had a “physical altercation” with Griffin.
Torrens, who was not known to Griffin, did not appear at a hearing in Downing Centre local court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody to appear on 20 June.
Beyond that, little has been made public. The Daily Telegraph reported that police evidence included time- and location-stamped Snapchat videos Griffin had shared with a friend, the account of a nearby resident who had heard a woman screaming “for up to a minute” about 3am but dismissed the sound as that of a fox, and a 2.43am ping from Torrens’ phone near to where the body was found.
It was further reported that Torrens’ DNA was linked to that taken from one of the victim’s fingers and that police documents stated she had scratches to her upper arms and a mark to the left side of her face, but no defensive injuries. NSW police said they could not comment .
The news reverberated around the sprawling Central Coast community but it did not come entirely as a surprise to some, including her family, who had always questioned how Griffin – who was reportedly weeks away from joining the navy – really died.
Despite the police’s initial conclusions, “my gut and my head was telling me something different”, Kirby told the Seven Network.
Social media posts reflect the same sentiment. “I can’t believe it wasn’t treated as suspicious from the start,” one Facebook user wrote. Another asked how the police wrote “it off as misadventure so quickly”.
On Tuesday Supt Darryl Jobson said despite “no suspicious circumstances arising from the forensics and the postmortem” police had always had concerns about the “unsettling” case.
“This is a matter that has not sat well with us from the very start,” he told reporters. “These are the types of cases where police want answers because families want answers.”
The community also wants answers.
One friend of Griffin’s, who asked for her name to be withheld, said the Central Coast had been alight with rumours about her friend’s last moments, including conflicting reports about when and by whom her body was found and how she had been dressed.
“We want to know the truth of what actually happened, because no one seems to be talking,” the friend said.
“The police really need to make a statement about it. They can at least clear up a lot of the rumours and help protect a young girl who lost her life at the hands of a man.”
Behind the calls for more information was fear, particularly among women and girls, she said.
“There’s a lot of people right now going, ‘Are we safe as a community?’ Because we don’t feel safe up here any more.”
An online fundraiser coorganised by Kirby has so far raised $30,000 towards family travel and a funeral for the teenager who brought “endless laughter and joy to everyone” and was “the kindest soul to walk this earth”.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. The Indigenous crisis hotline is 13 YARN or 13 92 76. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
