Mystery surrounds 'absolutely horrendous' death of toddler Safa Annour
Nearly nine months after the suspected murder of a toddler in Canberra, the investigation into the girl's
"absolutely horrendous" death is shrouded in mystery as police remain tight-lipped on the details.
Police believe two-year-old Safa Annour was murdered after she died of internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma on April 30 last year. An injured Safa was taken to Canberra Hospital about 1.50pm that day and died despite resuscitation attempts.
Authorities did not release any information about the case until nearly six months later, on November 1 last year, when Detective Superintendent Scott Moller revealed a murder investigation was under way and offered limited insights as he appealed to the public for information.
ACT Policing would not answer questions from the Sunday Canberra Times this week, saying the details police were able to release about the case were already public and that investigators still hoped to hear from anyone with information.
The questions included whether police had made any arrests or laid charges relating to the case, how many members of the public had contacted investigators with information and whether that information had opened new lines of inquiry, and how many officers were working on the investigation.
Police were also asked whether the two people they had identified as being responsible for Safa's care at the time she was believed to have received her fatal injuries had been ruled out as suspects.
Detective Superintendent Moller has previously refused to reveal what relationship those people had to Safa.
Speaking about the investigation in November, he described it as "absolutely horrendous" and "heartbreaking".
"These injuries were caused by another person," he said at the time, after revealing that Safa's port-mortem examination showed she had died of internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma.
The only other information released by police has been CCTV showing Safa in the hours leading up to her death.
One clip shows Safa waving to a bus driver as she gets off the bus, seemingly happy and uninjured, in Stuart Street, Griffith. The video was captured at 8.40am on April 30 last year, just over five hours before Safa arrived at hospital. In the video, she is accompanied by an adult and another child.
The other clip shows the 2-year-old walking along Stuart Avenue in Narrabundah, with a woman and another child. That video was recorded the previous day, about 9.40am. Police said in November that the woman in this footage was not being treated as a suspect and was not one of the two people responsible for Safa's care when she was believed to have been fatally injured.
ACT Policing would only release a short statement about the investigation when contacted this week.
"ACT Policing’s criminal investigators continue to investigate the suspected murder of Safa Annour," it said.
"Investigators believe there are people in the community who have information relating to Safa’s murder, and they are calling for anyone with information to come forward.
"Information can be provided to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or the investigators [can be] contacted directly on 0427 598 207. Information can be provided anonymously."