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The mystery surrounding a nurse and mother of three who died after being found in bushland and doused with acid is no closer to being solved a decade on, an inquest has found.
Monika Chetty was found seriously injured and with her skin peeling off in bushland in western Sydney on the afternoon of January 3, 2014.
He died four weeks later from complications after acid burns over 80 percent of his body.
Monika Chetty was found seriously injured and with her skin peeling off in bushland in western Sydney on the afternoon of January 3, 2014.
The 39-year-old woman, who was found with extensive acid burns to her face and body, had been separated from her family since 2010 and was sleeping rough.
Evidence presented to the New South Wales coroner’s court suggests Ms Chetty was doused with almost eight liters of hydrochloric acid weeks before she was found.
Before her death, she told police she was curled up on a park bench in Liverpool when someone approached her asking for money and cigarettes before spraying her with the chemical.
She said she attended hospital but there were no beds, but due to the severity of her injuries it is unlikely she would be turned away, counsel assisting coroner Christine Melis previously told the court.
Police also doubted Ms Chetty’s version of events, believing she deliberately misled them about the location of the attack to protect herself and her family from retaliation.
Magistrate Elaine Truscott said the 39-year-old’s death was caused by burns and was “the result of a homicide committed by a person or persons unknown” in findings delivered at Burwood Local Court on Thursday.
After clinging to life for four weeks, Mrs Chetty, then a qualified nurse, died.
The inquest heard evidence that Ms Chetty was “involved in activities and had associations which would give rise to people having motive and opportunity to cause her harm”.
However, Mrs Truscott was unable to determine how she was burned and who carried out the attack.
The 39-year-old woman, who was found with extensive acid burns to her face and body, had been separated from her family since 2010 and was sleeping rough.
The former deputy state coroner urged police to continue investigating the unsolved homicide.
“I am truly sorry that this investigation has failed to resolve the many questions surrounding Monika’s death and has not brought anyone to justice,” he said.
Chetty, a former nurse who became homeless after separating from her husband in 2009, was estranged from her family and had a significant gambling addiction.
He had told a social worker: “Someone put something on me after I didn’t give them money.”
But when nurses asked him about previous burns he had suffered in 2012 and 2013, he told them they were from frying eggs and other misdemeanors in the kitchen.
After acid was thrown at her, she still used public transportation and begged for money at a hospital.
She repeatedly refused help from people while homeless and instead only reached for cash, leading police at the time to believe she was under pressure to give money to someone.
Green Valley Police Detective Superintendent James Johnson described the case as the “most baffling” of his career.
‘In my 41 years in the police, this is most disconcerting. “I can’t understand the circumstances that led to this,” he told reporters at the time.
‘It’s covered in black marks. They are full thickness burns.
“In my opinion, he would have been in absolute agony, and to survive that long is incredible.”