The body of Melbourne teenager Isla Bell was allegedly hidden in a fridge before it was repeatedly dumped in a series of leafy city suburbs in the weeks that followed.
Police allege Ms Bell, 19, was murdered just after midnight on October 7 in Melbourne’s St Kilda East, but her remains were only found six weeks later at a Dandenong tip.
Court documents allege the fridge was shifted from location to location when the stench of death and flies repeatedly attracted attention and prompted its removal.
Alleged killer Marat Ganiev, 53, is accused of working with his friend Eyal Yaffe, 57, of Hampton, to cover up the murder and dispose of the body in the fridge.
Police allege it was left in Caulfield South, Hampton, Bentleigh East, and Mulgrave, all within a 20km 30-minute drive from the alleged murder scene in Ganiev’s St Kilda apartment.
It is alleged a bag containing Ms Bell’s body was finally removed from the fridge in Clayton and put in a residential bin.
It was later picked up by a garbage truck which took it to the Dandenong tip where it was finally discovered on Tuesday.
Police allege the empty fridge was then left on a street corner in Bentleigh, with new photos appearing to show the appliance dumped on the side of a residential street.
Photos appear to show the fridge dumped on the side of a residential street in Dandenong
The journey that police allege Bell’s remains made around south-east Melbourne
Two men have been charged after police found suspected human remains in their search for 19-year-old Isla Bell (pictured)
On Wednesday, Ganiev appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with Ms Bell’s murder while Yaffe was charged with assisting an offender with murder.
Ms Bell was last seen leaving her Brunswick home in Melbourne on October 4.
In a Snapchat post sent three days later on October 7, she told a friend she had ‘found the best sugar daddy,’ according to court documents.
She said this person had saved her from ‘sex traffickers’ and had showered her with gifts.
Police allege Ms Bell was staying with Ganiev in his St Kilda apartment from midnight on October 5.
Shortly after midnight on October 7, she ‘abruptly stops sending messages’ to her friend, court documents said.
Three days later she was reported missing by her mother.
Police allege Ganiev had murdered Ms Bell just after midnight on October 7.
Homicide Squad detectives allege CCTV captured from outside Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment complex captured what appeared to be him attacking Ms Bell.
From a gap in the front kitchen window, police allege Ms Bell’s head could be seen ‘whipping around’ as she was struck by Ganiev.
Marat Ganiev, 53, of St Kilda appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday charged with murdering Isla Bell
Eyal Yaffe (pictured) appeared jovial within the confines of the prison dock on Wednesday. He is accused of helping the man who allegedly murdered Isla Bell conceal his crime
‘She falls to the ground and Ganeiv can then be seen striking her on the ground of the kitchen,’ court documents state.
‘What appears to be Bell’s head can be seen rising up before being pushed back down by Ganiev’s arm.’
The footage allegedly captured Ms Bell alive between 12.43am until 2am when she vanished from sight.
Police allege Ganiev went to work cleaning the apartment over the following days. On October 9, Yaffe allegedly arrived at the property towing a black fridge on the back of a trailer.
Police allege the fridge was brought in to replace the old fridge where the men had hidden Ms Bell’s body.
On October 17, the men were shown on CCTV removing the old fridge and placing it on a trailer, with the appliance wrapped in clear plastic and door taped shut, court documents said.
The fridge containing Ms Bell’s body was allegedly dumped in a driveway that day in Caulfield South by both men, with Yaffe seen extensively cleaning the trailer and vehicle, police say.
Isla Bell (pictured) was last seen leaving her Brunswick home, in Melbourne’s inner city, about 6pm on October 4. Her remains were found at a tip six weeks later
Two days later, and a mere hour after police attempted to contact Ganiev for the first time, police allege Ganiev moved the fridge to an address in Hampton.
By then, a neighbour had noticed the smell coming from the fridge which had attracted flies.
On October 22 the fridge was moved yet again to an address in Bentleigh East where it remained for the next three-to-four days.
A bag belonging to Ms Bell was allegedly dumped by Yaffe on October 28 after he was brought in by police to be interviewed.
Police executed search warrants at each of the addresses where the fridge was spotted and allegedly found a bucket hat belonging to Ms Bell at one of them.
On October 30, police allege the fridge was moved again when it was transported by a removalist van in Mulgrave.
Stored behind other items in a van, the fridge turned up next at a recycling facility in Clayton on November 18 when an unnamed man opened the foul-smelling appliance.
Police allege a garbage bag containing Ms Bell’s body fell from the fridge, but the man mistook it for a dead animal.
Police allege Isla Bell’s body was put in a fridge and discarded with the garbage
The man allegedly dumped the fridge with the rest of the hard rubbish on a street corner in Bentleigh, and put the garbage bag containing Ms Bell’s remains in a residential bin around the corner.
Police say they located the man on November 19 who had separated the fridge and Ms Bell’s remains the day before.
They allege they found the fridge on a street corner in Bentleigh and with help from the local council, which identified the trucks that collected rubbish from bins in Bentleigh, they searched the trucks at the tip in Dandenong and found Ms Bell’s remains.
When Yaffe was arrested that same day, police allegedly found meth and $6,000 in cash on him.
He was also packing a ticket to Bulgaria, where police claimed he intended to flee the following day.
While initially denying his involvement in concealing Ms Bell’s body, police claim Yaffe eventually admitted the crime, but claimed to have known nothing about how the teenager died.
Yaffe appeared in court on Wednesday hours after his mate faced a charge of murder within the same court.
Placed behind protective bulletproof glass in the court’s prison dock, Yaffe was seen laughing with a security guard during his brief appearance.
Police claim that shortly after midnight on October 7, Bell ‘abruptly stops sending messages’
Seated before him at the front of the court appeared to be members of his family, whom he smiled and attempted to communicate with.
A woman was seen crying as the court heard an intended bail application could not be held due to delays in the matter being called on.
Yaffe is being represented by top Melbourne barrister Ian Hill – an elite Kings Counsel who helped get convicted cop killer Jason Roberts off the hook after years behind bars.
Mr Hill will return to court on Friday, where he will fight to have Yaffe released from custody.
Police are expected to oppose the bail application, arguing Yaffe is a flight risk with a swag of ‘unexplained wealth’.
Social media accounts show Yaffe and Ganiev were friends on Facebook, with Ganiev’s profile picture seemingly containing a text alert from Yaffe in a bizarre profile picture.
Dressed in black and appearing gaunt, Ganiev, of St Kilda, looked visibly unwell as the short filing hearing took place.
His lawyer, Adrian Lewin, told the court his client was in desperate need of his methadone medication – a drug used by addicts attempting to get off heroin.
Bell’s mother, Justine Spokes, reported her missing on October 10
The court heard Ganiev required 70mg of the medication, which he had not received for the past two days.
On Wednesday, Ms Bell’s heartbroken mother Justine Spokes issued a gut-wrenching statement in memory of her daughter as Ganiev faced court.
‘I am so, so sorry my darling daughter,’ she said.
‘I could not protect you from your complex illnesses and this cruel world.
‘I was so proud of your choices this year, your strength to endure despite your suffering.
‘All you ever wanted was to create, make and nurture life, to love and be loved.
‘We were so much looking forward to being reunited as a family again; my heart aches and cannot reconcile that’s not going to happen.’
She said her daughter was ‘the gentlest soul, the kindest human and free spirited’.
‘I will connect to you in spirit my care bear and no one can take that connection away from us,’ she added.
A 63-year-old Mulgrave man was also arrested but has been released pending further enquiries.
The Missing Persons Squad formally took over the investigation in late October.
