{"id":674319,"date":"2026-05-16T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674319\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:07:07","slug":"teenager-isla-bells-body-was-found-in-a-melbourne-tip-18-months-ago-today-friends-and-family-demanded-justice-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674319\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager Isla Bell\u2019s body was found in a Melbourne tip 18 months ago. Today friends and family demanded \u2018justice\u2019 | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isla Bell, the 19-year-old whose body was found in a Melbourne<\/a> tip 18 months ago, has been remembered as a loving, courageous and open-hearted young woman with a green thumb and an \u201cexquisitely beautiful soul\u201d.<\/p>\n

Friends, family and supporters gathered outside the Victorian state library on Saturday to honour the teenager and protest against prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against the man who had been accused of killing her.<\/p>\n

Marat Ganiev, 55, who was originally charged with murdering Bell on 7 October 2024, had his charge downgraded to manslaughter and, this week, withdrawn, with prosecutors saying they had insufficient evidence for a trial.<\/p>\n

Ganiev has instead been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, devastating Bell\u2019s family and prompting them to demand changes to the system meant to protect victims of crime.<\/p>\n

Justine Spokes, the mother of Isla Bell, outside the State Library Victoria in Melbourne. Photograph: Jay Kogler\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind was prepared for that outcome, because my expectations were low,\u201d Bell\u2019s mother, Justine Spokes, said of the decision as she addressed the vigil on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] I just couldn\u2019t prepare my heart for that. And they didn\u2019t prepare my heart for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokes spoke of her grief and frustration with the legal system \u2013 which she called \u201csick and perverted\u201d and \u201cnot a justice system\u201d \u2013 and the flaws in the system designed to protect vulnerable women and girls.<\/p>\n

However, Spokes said she wanted to honour her daughter by ultimately choosing love over \u201ceverything else\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this revolving door of really hurting men whose hearts are stone, and there\u2019s sort of no real social consequence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tackle this systemic cultural problem of misogyny in Australia from the inside out, you know? And \u2026 the heart is the doorway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Spokes said her daughter had endured other \u201chorrors at the hands of really unwell men\u201d before the experience that resulted in her death, but despite this pain she \u201cjust kept sharing her exquisitely beautiful soul\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee, the essence of my baby was palpable wherever she went,\u201d Spokes said.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s remains were found inside a fridge in a rubbish tip in Dandenong in Melbourne\u2019s south-east in November 2024, about six weeks after the night police believe she died.<\/p>\n

In addition to Ganiev, Eyal Yaffe, 59, was originally accused of assisting an offender and attempting to pervert the course of justice, but prosecutors withdrew the two charges and he walked free from court.<\/p>\n

Spokes said there had been \u201call these chemicals around\u201d her daughter\u2019s body, meaning she could not touch her or brush her hair one last time.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s disappearance galvanised a community search that lasted for weeks but Spokes on Saturday said she knew her daughter had died the moment it happened.<\/p>\n

She said she had felt her daughter come to her after her death.<\/p>\n

The rally for Isla Bell outside State Library Victoria. Photograph: Jay Kogler\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cShe felt guilty. She thought it was her fault. I said, \u2018No, my baby, it was never your fault\u2019,\u201d Spokes said. \u201cAnd I had to let her go to where she needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many people in the crowd, dressed in orange to honour Bell, in memory of her long, vibrant hair, wept.<\/p>\n

Other friends and relatives shared memories of Bell and called for an end to \u201ctoxic masculinity\u201d and violence against women.<\/p>\n

Justine\u2019s father, David, spoke of his \u201cgem\u201d of a granddaughter with pride. He said she had loved gardening so much she carried secateurs in her bag everywhere with her, in case she wanted to take clippings.<\/p>\n

He called on the Victorian attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, to intervene in the case, saying the man who had been accused of killing his granddaughter should have been tried in front of the jury of his peers.<\/p>\n

David Spokes, the grandfather of Isla Bell, during the rally. Photograph: Jay Kogler\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cOur motivation is not vengeance or rage \u2013 our community needs to have a conversation about justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictims and families are not getting justice in this state. The system appears to be hardwired to limit effective prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s uncle, Chris, told the vigil the justice system needed \u201ca fucking revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember \u2026 the last time I saw her, she went out the door and I gave her a hug and she went into the world as she always does bravely and with an open heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways swimming, that Isla, and meeting you and meeting the world and meeting injustice and meeting her anger and meeting her joy and meeting any feeling she had and any person and experience with love in her heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isla Bell, the 19-year-old whose body was found in a Melbourne tip 18 months ago, has been remembered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-674319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}