Warning: graphic content
Former nurse and mother-of-three Monika Chetty was found in bushland near a suburban street in south-west Sydney with mysterious acid burns to most of her body.
Now, a decade later, a coronial inquest has concluded that the case is a mystery.
Monika Chetty suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and was taken to hospital, but died three weeks later.Credit: NSW Police
On January 4, 2014, an anonymous caller contacted emergency services about the welfare of a woman lying in bushland in West Hoxton.
Chetty, 39, was taken to Concord Hospital with acid burns to 80 per cent of her body, so severe she could not be identified.
Doctors hypothesised nearly eight litres of hydrochloric acid was used in the attack. She died in hospital three weeks later.
Monika Chetty (right) with friend Shelly Zammit in 1990.
Before her death, Chetty told police that she was lying on a park bench in Liverpool when a stranger poured acid on her because she would not give him cigarettes and money. Police, however, believed this was untrue.
At Burwood Local Court on Thursday, magistrate Elaine Truscott found Chetty’s death was caused by the burns and was the “result of homicide by person or persons unknown”.
While the inquest heard evidence Chetty “was involved in activities and had associations which would give rise to persons having motive and opportunity to cause harm to her”, how she was burnt and who burnt her remained unknown.
The only recommendation made by Truscott, the former deputy state coroner who heard the inquest’s evidence in late 2020, was that police continue to investigate the unsolved homicide.
“I truly regret that this inquest has not been able to resolve the many questions about Monika’s death and has brought no person to justice,” Truscott said.
The inquest found Chetty, a former nurse who separated from her husband in 2009 due to financial woes stemming from her gambling problem that was significant by 2005, was probably attacked three weeks before entering hospital.
Despite her burns being deemed as non-survivable, she told doctors she wanted to be kept alive.
While her wish could not be granted, police discovered she had most likely kept herself alive for weeks after suffering the burns. She was seen in public throughout December 2013 with tracksuits and bandages covering her burns, catching buses, hosing herself off and asking for money.
But it was far from the first time she was burnt.
Police look for clues in the unsolved homicide of Monika Chetty in 2018.Credit: NSW Police
Throughout 2012 and 2013, family and friends saw various burns on Chetty, which she blamed on accidents caused by cooking, a coal radiator, or having her hand stuck in the car bonnet.
After her separation, she fell on hard times and became homeless. She became embroiled in a fake visa scam where Indian students would pay her thousands of dollars in exchange for visas that never eventuated.
Truscott said Chetty “owed a lot of money over the years and was always in need of repayment”. Between August 16, 2010, and December 11, 2013, Chetty made 205 deposits into 15 bank accounts totalling $184,000. Police don’t know where the money went. In 2012, she underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer but did not attend the hospital for prearranged surgery in December.
Monika Chetty’s death remains a mystery.
By 2013, she was living in her car. By the end of the year, she had no car and was living in bushland close to where she was found burnt.
Before her death, Chetty regularly pawned jewellery at Smart Cash Loans, a Fairfield pawn store.
She spent a lot of time with its co-owners Sadma Begum, her husband Ion Olariu and their daughter Mosmeen Mohammed, whom she met in 2007. Mohammed lived near the bushland where she was found. She sometimes slept on her verandah; Mohammed and her parents tended to some of her wounds. Chetty referred to Begum as “aunty” or “mum”.
In 2010, she wrote in her diary that she owed Begum money and needed to pay her $500 a week. About the same time, she wrote entries about “babe” or “baby,” referring to a man called “Nick Cha”. The inquest, however, found no evidence of this man existing or of them meeting if he did.
Begum, Olariu, Mohammed, “Cha” and Chetty’s ex-husband have not been charged over the death and there is no suggestion they were involved.
In a statement to the court, Chetty’s sister, Mohini Prasad, shared how her family struggled with two sudden losses when her 83-year-old father suffered a heart attack following Chetty’s death.
In his own statement, Chetty’s son Daniel wrote how deeply he missed his mother.
“My life has not been the same since she left us,” he said.
“The one thing I miss the most is saying I love you and knowing I’ll hear it back”.
Ahead of the inquest starting in 2020, the NSW government announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Chetty’s death.