A 20-year-old Australian woman has been found dead in Mozambique, shortly after she checked in to a backpackers hostel.
Melbourne resident Elly Warren was travelling and volunteering in Mozambique and was due to return to Australia in just a few days. Warren had been volunteering with an eco-research company called Africa Underwater for the past six weeks.
Warren checked into the beachfront hostel Wuyani Pariango on Wednesday and dropped off her bags before leaving to meet a friend.
In a Facebook post on Thursday night, Warren's father wrote that Elly's body had been found in the remote fishing village of Pemba. "There is going to be an investigation and autopsy, which I have been informed can take up to two weeks," he wrote.
Paul Warren also appeared on Sunrise on Friday morning and said that his daughter had been worried about visiting the African country.
"She was a lovely girl, but now she's gone ... it's a possibility she was raped. She was near the market square and they found her body near the toilet blocks," he said.
"It's unbelievable, when you think what she had to go through."
“She even told me ‘it’s dangerous, Dad, I don’t know if I should be going over there’."
"She was someone with a lot of ambitions in life and now it's all been taken away from her because of some bastards."
Elly's sister, Kristy, has asked on Facebook that people be mindful of who they travel with when going overseas.
Upon her return to Australia, Warren was set to travel with her boyfriend, Luke Tempany, to New Zealand.
"I want her to remembered for her love of the oceans," Tempany told news.com.au. "She had such a beautiful heart that wanted to travel the world."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement it would be providing consular assistance to the Warren family, but would not provide further comment.