Australian police are treating the death of Ioli Hadjilyra, a 26-year-old Brisbane woman described as a “passionate artist” whose mother was from Cyprus and father is Australian, as suspicious and possibly a homicide.
Council workers discovered her body in a garden in Clayfield on Wednesday.
Hadjilyra was born in Cyprus but her Greek Cypriot mother and Australian father moved to Brisbane years ago. Her mother had recently passed away. Her three other siblings live in Cyprus.
Ms Hadjilyra was described as a popular young woman who had many friends and came from a good family.
“Her dad was an Australian and her mum was born in Cyprus … she called Brisbane home,” Detective Inspector Trezise told a press conference in Brisbane.
“Her mum tragically passed away from cancer a few years ago and her other siblings reside in Cyprus.
“Ioli’s been to Brisbane for some time now, she went to high school and has basically made Brisbane her home as likewise with her father, who still lives in Brisbane.”
Trezise said the family was “quite traumatised” over her death.
The Detective Inspector also told reporters several factors relating to Hadjilyra’s death raised police suspicion, including that some of her clothing appeared to be interfered with and that attempts had been made to disguise her body in bushes at the park.
A post-mortem to determine the cause of her death is still being performed, though Trezise confirmed there were unexplained bruises and bleeding on her body.
“We don’t know how Ioli came to be in the park, we don’t know who she was with and we don’t know how she got there,” Inspector Trezise said.
“We have her at a location at Spring Hill some 24 hours before her body was located.”
Hadjilyra’s main mode of transport was trains, and given the location of her body between Toombul and Eagle Junction train stations, police are appealing for anyone who may have seen her, or anything suspicious at either of the train stations on Tuesday evening.
