A man has been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of a Victorian toddler who was reported missing on Tuesday.
John Torney, 31, briefly appeared in Mildura magistrates court on Friday night charged with murdering two-year-old Nikki Francis-Coslovich.
Nikki’s body was found in the roof cavity of her Mildura home on Tuesday evening, hours after she was reported missing by her mother.
When Nikki went missing, nearly 200 people from the area helped search for her.
Police initially thought she had wandered from her home, but her body was found at around 5.30pm.
Detectives received the results of an autopsy on Nikki’s body on Thursday morning. It is believed the autopsy gave police the final pieces to the puzzle regarding her death.
Torney is the boyfriend of the girl’s mother.
He was remanded to appear at Mildura magistrates court on 15 December.
Speaking in Melbourne after formally identifying his daughter’s body on Friday, Nick Coslovich said he was struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
“I’ve pretty much moved past sadness; I’m trying to hold back rage,” Coslovich told the Nine Network.
“I can’t even process half of what’s coming in at the moment.”
He told Fairfax Media Nikki “was the kind of little girl that would walk into a room and light it up”.
“If someone was feeling down or having a bad day she’d give them a big hug and everything would be OK. It’s the purest little life to take away.”
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
