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Man charged in murder of exchange student in Australia

By Sommer Brokaw
Police released surveillance footage of Aiia Maasarwe at a tram station near Melbourne. She was killed after departing the tram in Bundoora. A suspect in her murder was charged Saturday. Photo courtesy Victoria Police
Police released surveillance footage of Aiia Maasarwe at a tram station near Melbourne. She was killed after departing the tram in Bundoora. A suspect in her murder was charged Saturday. Photo courtesy Victoria Police

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Australian police charged a man with murder in the death of an Israeli exchange student Saturday after her body was found in Bundoora days earlier.

Codey Hermann, 20, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Saturday, ABC Australia and news.com.au reported.

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Hermann is due back in court on Monday. He was arrested Friday morning in the nearby suburb of Greensborough, ABC reported.

The charge, announced earlier Saturday by Victoria Police, follows the police's probe into 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe's death.

Maasarwe was studying as an exchange student at La Trobe University in Melbourne for six months.

Passers-by discovered her body Wednesday in bushes in Bundoora, a suburb near the center of Melbourne, police said.

Police believe the Israeli exchange student was killed late Tuesday less than a mile from her home.

After a night out in the city, Maasarwe got off the tram in Bundoora and was brutally attacked at random while talking on the phone with her sister overseas, officials believe, according to a 9News Australia report.

"This is a horrendous crime that has been inflicted on an innocent member of our community," Victoria Police Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said.

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