The mother of a British backpacker murdered in Australia plans to scatter her ashes around the world so she can continue her travels.
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was stabbed to death at a hostel by an attacker allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” in Queensland on Tuesday.
A Frenchman, Smail Ayad, 29, who had allegedly become obsessed with her, has been charged with murder.
Rosie Ayliffe, from Wirksworth in Derbyshire, said she understood that some of her daughter’s friends wanted her body flown home and were “struggling” with the decision.
“Hence the plan to create a place of remembrance here, but also to give various people vials of Mia’s ashes to scatter in places dear to her or to them,” she wrote on The Independent website.
“That way she can visit places she hasn’t visited yet. Canada, New Zealand, Singapore.” She said that the only way she could cope with her loss was to think that “Mia’s time had come”.
Tom Jackson, 30, from Congleton in Cheshire, who was stabbed trying to save Ayliffe-Chung, remains on life support. His father, Les Jackson, said he was “immensely proud” of his son’s actions.
Queensland police said there was no evidence that Ayad – who has also been charged with the attempted murder of Jackson – was even a practising Muslim.
In her column, Ayliffe said “much nonsense” had been spoken in the media about her daughter’s alleged killer.
“Smail Ayad – the French man being held on suspicion of my daughter’s murder – is not an Islamic fundamentalist, he has never set foot in a mosque.
“It appears he wasn’t allowed to appear in court this week because of safety concerns, so I’m unlikely to get near enough to have a conversation, and only if I were suicidal would I want to (I’m not).”
Detectives are investigating whether “mental health or drug misuse issues” were a factor alongside any “indication of an extremist slant or he was radicalised”.
Ayliffe added: “At the moment the only way I can really cope with our loss is to think, Mia’s time had come, and what happened in that hostel on Tuesday was her fate.
“It was always going to happen like that. She was lent to us for a period of time and now, in Ben Johnson’s words, she’s been ‘exacted by the Lord on the just day’. (I always struggled to teach that poem without welling up!)
“But I also think that wise little girl was here for a reason, and part of my journey will be to find out what that reason was.”
