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Jurors overseeing a high-profile Queensland murder trial have traveled to the remote beach where the young woman was located.

Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with minimal chance of survival, the jury has heard.

The remains were found by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

Court Visit to Beach

The panel of 10 men and two women plus three back-up jurors visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.

In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a casual top, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Location Particulars

The court members were led around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.

Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, four markers indicated where the vehicle had been left.

The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no testimony was given.

Context of the Case

Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, family and parents.

He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.

Prosecution Case

It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.

The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.

Those items were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution contend.

Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found tied up to a tree hidden in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.

The weapon was found, and no one have been found.

But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

This will include evidence that genetic material obtained from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.

The jury has already heard evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the incident – and that its travel corresponded with those of a vehicle belonging to the accused.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has claimed.

Defence Stance

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."

He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.

Further Evidence

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who testified last week.

The court heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her body were discovered.

Photographs depicting the witness on a hike with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been altered in any way.

The case will return to the standard environment of the courtroom on the next day.