Fresh heartbreak for friends and family of teen Isla Bell after she was allegedly murdered and her body was found in a fridge at a tip six weeks later

Daily Mail​

19 hours ago

Friends and family of tragic teenager Isla Bell have confronted the man accused of murdering her and hiding her body in a fridge at locations around Melbourne.
About a dozen, some wearing orange ribbons, crowded into the cramped room 22 of Melbourne Magistrates' Court to face Marat Ganiev when he appeared on Friday.
Orange and red ribbons - to reflect Ms Bell's distinctive hair colour - were tied all over Melbourne in her memory after she was allegedly killed by Ganiev, 54.
He appeared in court alongside co-accused Eyal Yaffe, 58, who has been charged with assisting an offender with murder.
But family and friends heard the process will be delayed after Ganiev requested an adjournment to secure additional cash to fund his legal defence.
Ganiev, who appeared in his prison greens via videolink from Port Phillip Prison, barely spoke during the short hearing.
Yaffe, who is on bail, was late to join the online court link as Ms Bell's supporters waited for the matter to proceed.
Previously released court documents outlined the alleged harrowing final moments of Ms Bell's life.
Ms Bell told her friend a 'sugar daddy' had lavished her with gifts and 'saved her from sex traffickers'.
Police allege Ganiev murdered Ms Bell just after midnight on October 7 last year.
Homicide Squad detectives allege CCTV outside Ganiev's St Kilda East apartment complex captured what appeared to be him attacking Ms Bell.
Cameras recorded Ms Bell entering his apartment at 9.27pm on October 5, but she never left alive, police allege.
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.
'She falls to the ground and Ganiev 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.
The court heard Ms Bell had thought she had found the man of her dreams in the days before she was allegedly brutally murdered by a man more than twice her age.
Daily Mail Australia revealed that police allege the 19-year old texted her friend just hours before her alleged murder expressing her happiness.
In a Snapchat post sent on October 7, Ms Bell, who was last seen leaving her Brunswick home in Melbourne three days earlier on October 4, told her friend that she had 'found the best sugar daddy', court documents state.
Her remains were found at a tip at Dandenong six weeks later on November 19.
Detectives allege Yaffe, of Hampton, became involved after receiving a call from Ganiev on October 8, a day after Ms Bell is said to have been killed.
The following day, he allegedly drove to Ganiev's St Kilda East apartment and dropped off a new black fridge, returning on October 17 to remove the old one wrapped in plastic.
Police allege Ms Bell's remains were inside the fridge.
Over the following days the trailer was allegedly moved to three locations around Melbourne allegedly associated with Mr Yaffe, with one person later telling police it had a 'foul smell' and was attracting flies.
Detective Senior Constable Benjamin Curran previously told the court it was the police case Yaffe knew the fridge contained her body and that she had been killed.
'At the time it had been 10 days since she had died … It's not a smell that can be mistaken or forgotten,' he said.
When Yaffe was arrested, police allegedly found meth and $6,000 in cash on him.
While initially denying his involvement in concealing Ms Bell's body, police allege Yaffe eventually admitted the crime, but claimed to have known nothing about how the teenager died.
Ms Bell's family were in tears on November 25 last year when Magistrate Rohan Lawrence allowed Yaffe to walk free despite describing his alleged crimes as 'callous' and 'repugnant'.
Ms Bell's family, who were seated at the rear of the court, sat stunned as Mr Lawrence outlined all of the reasons why he believed Yaffe was entitled to walk free.
'In my view the prosecution have not established Mr Yaffe is an unacceptable risk,' he said.
In applying for bail, Yaffe's barrister Ian Hill KC said the former jeweller could live with his son, Ziv Yaffe, and be electronically monitored.
It was a condition accepted by the magistrate, with Yaffe to be fitted with the monitor at all times while free on bail.
Yaffe is forbidden from attending five addresses linked to the alleged crime or attempt to visit any ports where he could flee the country.
The court heard Yaffe had been armed with a ticket to Bulgaria when he was arrested, having purchased it the day after police hauled him in for questioning.
Prosecutors had argued Yaffe was not only a flight risk, but a risk to public safety and prosecution witnesses.
'In my view, the case against him does not hinge on witnesses but phone records, CCTV and statements to police,' Mr Lawrence said.
'There is no rational reason to believe he could interfere.'
Ms Bell's heartbroken mother Justine Spokes issued a gut-wrenching statement last November as her daughter's accused killer faced court for the first time.
'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.