When Elly Warren was murdered in an African beach town, the 20-year-old's family could never have imagined they would still be searching for her killer seven years later.
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While dealing with the trauma of her death, they have had to finance their own investigation, hiring private investigators and feeding information to Australian police and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
"This whole process to us has been a shambles," Ms Warren's step-father David Cafarella told a coroner on Wednesday.
He said the Australian Federal Police and DFAT had been "seemingly unable to work cohesively together", with no financial or legal assistance offered and no help in repatriating their daughter's body from Mozambique.
Mr Cafarella called for Victorian coroner John Cain to order the AFP to open a homicide investigation into Ms Warren's death and for the agency to change its processes for families of Australians who die overseas.
"An independent unit that could come together as required at short notice to ensure every angle has been covered in quick time, rather than seven years of toing and froing between agencies all worried about who's pissing on whose patch," he said.
"I can't help but think, had this been done at a very early time Elly's killer would be behind bars."
Judge Cain is investigating the cause of Ms Warren's death in November 2016 and the circumstances surrounding it.
The budding marine biologist, who was volunteering in the country, was found dead outside a toilet block in the beach town of Tofo.
AFP Commander of International Engagement Andrew Smith appeared before the three-day inquest earlier on Wednesday, where he was grilled on the force's decision not to formally investigate her death.
When an Australian died overseas in suspicious circumstances, the AFP's initial position was "where the crime has been committed is where it should be investigated", he said.
"We can't just go into another country and start doing our own investigation," he told the court.
Cmdr Smith said the AFP sent Mozambique authorities emails and letters offering assistance with the investigation, but they did not respond.
"Without the full co-operation and support from law enforcement in the country, the role that we can play is very limited," he said.
He visited Mozambique for the first time in May, a few months after Judge Cain told the AFP to "move heaven and earth" to find answers for Ms Warren's family.
"That's when a decision was made to have a senior level presence," he said.
Previously, an AFP superintendent detective had been sent to Mozambique, he said.
Cmdr Smith met local police and high-level officials, including Mozambique's deputy director of prosecutions, where he said he was told for the first time police were investigating Ms Warren's death as a homicide.
Asked about an early autopsy finding her death was a homicide, he said the report was "a bit of a paper from a doctor" and wouldn't have influenced AFP's decision to pursue an investigation as much as police deciding it was a homicide.
Blake Gray, who was volunteering as honorary consul in Mozambique for DFAT, was sent to Tofo about three days after Ms Warren was found.
He spent one and a half days gathering information and interviewing locals before returning home.
Mr Gray said local police refused to speak to him and government officials were adamant her death was "an accident".
"I couldn't understand how I couldn't talk to the police who were literally 50 metres away," he told the court.
The inquest continues.
Australian Associated Press
