{"id":927795,"date":"2026-10-14T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927795\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:58:12","slug":"family-of-indigenous-woman-found-dead-in-melbourne-mourn-vibrant-beautiful-young-girl-indigenous-australians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927795\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Indigenous woman found dead in Melbourne mourn \u2018vibrant, beautiful young girl\u2019 | Indigenous Australians"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a young Indigenous woman found dead in an apartment complex in Melbourne\u2019s inner-north on Saturday say they are \u201cabsolutely crushed and shattered\u201d by her death.<\/p>\n

Jayda Allen Bonner, 21, was found dead on the fifth floor of an apartment block on Cardigan Street, Carlton on Saturday at about 1.45am.<\/p>\n

Police on Wednesday charged a 31-year-old man with murder. He was expected to appear in the Melbourne magistrates court that afternoon.<\/p>\n

The man presented himself at a police station on Tuesday, police said.<\/p>\n

A 60-year-old man who was initially arrested has been released without charge.<\/p>\n

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Bonner\u2019s aunt, Kellie Carter-Bell described her niece as a \u201cvibrant, beautiful young girl\u201d who was \u201cfed to the wolves because the system didn\u2019t listen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carter-Bell said Bonner had been with her partner, who was 10 years her senior, since she was 15 years old.<\/p>\n

Bonner lived with Carter-Bell in Melbourne as a young child and attended school in Carlton.<\/p>\n

A memorial outside the Cardigan Street apartment where Jayda Allen Bonner was found dead. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

Her aunt said \u201cshe was a beautiful family girl\u201d, who had hopes of moving back to Queensland to be with \u201cher mob and to work in the community\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJayda wanted to share her own knowledge of what she could [do] to help her community,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard from her school teachers what a beautiful, vibrant young lady she was.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a lot of dreams and aspirations \u2026 She looks exactly like her mother, which is beautiful.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s someone this world shouldn\u2019t have lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t save my niece, so I feel worthless and useless at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family is absolutely crushed and shattered. We don\u2019t want her to ever be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling <\/a>is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline<\/a> on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid<\/a>. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was amended on 14 October 2026. Victoria<\/a> police have clarified that the man presented at a police station on Tuesday, rather than Monday as they had initially said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a young Indigenous woman found dead in an apartment complex in Melbourne\u2019s inner-north on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-927795","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\/927795","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=927795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}