News / Crime
Man charged with murder of Brunswick teenager Isla Bell
Police discovered human remains on Tuesday night
Brunswick Voice
TWO men have been charged – one with murder – after the discovery of human remains that police believe are those of missing Brunswick teenager Isla Bell.
St Kilda East man Marat Ganiev, 53, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning, charged with the 19-year-old’s murder, while Eyal Yaffe, 57, from Hampton, faced a charge of assisting an offender with murder.
The charges were laid on Tuesday after police located what are believed to be human remains as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Isla, who had been reported missing six weeks ago.
The yet-to-be formally identified remains were found at a rubbish tip in Dandenong on Tuesday night by detectives from the Missing Persons Squad.
Isla was last seen leaving her home about 6pm on October 4, and friends and family lost all contact with her three days later.
Her case was escalated to the Missing Persons Squad in late October after increasingly frantic appeals from her family for information, including posters put up around Brunswick and a Facebook page and fundraising campaign launched by her father’s side of the family.
Her mother Justine Spokes paid tribute to her “beloved daughter” in statements to the media on Wednesday.
“Cherished forever and suffering no more,” she told The Age.
“I am so sorry I could not protect you, that your experience of the world was cruel and unsafe.”
On Tuesday, detectives arrested three men after executing search warrants at two properties in Bentleigh East and Mulgrave.
Ganiev, wearing a black T-shirt, sat slumped in the court dock as he looked around the room on Wednesday morning.
He has been charged with Isla’s murder in St Kilda East on October 7, about three days after she was last seen, court documents reveal.
Ganiev had been prescribed methadone but his lawyer said he had not received the medication for two days.
Magistrate Justin Foster remanded Ganiev in custody and ordered he be seen by a prison nurse. He will return to court in March.
His alleged accomplice, 57-year-old Eyal Yaffe of Hampton, appeared in court later on Wednesday.
A 63-year-old Mulgrave man was released pending further enquiries.
Chilling details of Isla’s last hours and the alleged attempt to cover up her death have been disclosed in court documents. A police summary said CCTV footage was used to piece together the case against the two men, including an alleged fight on October 7 in Ganiev’s apartment.
Police allege Isla’s body was hidden in a fridge wrapped in clear plastic and black tape that was taken from the apartment to a street in Caulfield South, where it stayed until October 22.
A neighbour reported the fridge to police because it was attracting flies and had a “foul smell”.
The trailer carrying the fridge was allegedly moved to a Bentleigh East property before being shifted to Mulgrave days later in a removal van.
A resident discovered Isla’s remains on November 18 after he removed the plastic wrapping, the fridge door swung open and a bag fell out.
He believed the bag contained animal remains, and dumped the fridge on a street corner near hard rubbish in Bentleigh.
The man then placed the bag holding Ms Bell’s remains in a residential rubbish bin before later contacting police. The remains were located at a waste management facility in Dandenong on Tuesday night.
– with AAP
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