Murder of Aya Maasarwe

Aya Maasarwe (also known as Aiia Maasarwe) was born in 1997 in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Israel, to a Palestinian Muslim family. She was studying at Shanghai University and was in Melbourne, Australia, as part of a student exchange program with La Trobe University, undertaking a business degree with plans to later work at her father's firm in China.

She had been returning home after attending a performance at a comedy club in North Melbourne and was on a video call with her sister at the time. Her body was discovered around 7 am in shrubbery near the carpark of the Polaris 3083 Town Centre shopping mall by maintenance workers. Items of clothing suspected to belong to her attacker were found within 100 metres of her body.

According to police investigators, the attacker struck Maasarwe four times from behind with a 60-centimetre metal pipe without warning, then dragged her onto a patch of grass near the shopping centre, raped her, struck her another nine times to the head with the pipe, and then sprayed the cleaning agent WD-40 over her body and set it alight with a barbecue lighter, most likely after she had died.

On 18 January 2019, 20-year-old Codey Herrmann, described as a vagrant, was arrested in Pioneer Reserve, a park in the nearby suburb of Greensborough. The following day he was charged with Maasarwe's rape and murder and appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, where he was remanded in custody.

Maasarwe's family received her body from the coroner on 21 January 2019. A Janazah (Islamic funeral rites) and prayer service was held at the Albanian Mosque in Dandenong, attended by family and supporters. The family returned to Israel with her body on 22 January, and she was buried in her home town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye. Her family later created a scholarship for Palestinian doctors in her name.

Herrmann, who had no previous criminal record, was an Aboriginal Australian who had experienced significant childhood neglect, was placed into care as an infant, and was diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis and severe personality disorder. He had been homeless for several years at the time of the killing.

Herrmann pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of Maasarwe. On 29 October 2019, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth of the Supreme Court of Victoria sentenced him to 36 years in prison with a 30-year non-parole period, applying the Verdins principles to reduce his sentence based on findings that his moral culpability was reduced due to mental health difficulties. In November 2019, the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence as "manifestly inadequate," arguing Herrmann should have received life imprisonment due to the risk he posed to the community. In June 2021, the Court of Appeal, led by president Chris Maxwell, ruled that the original sentence should stand, finding the original judge was justified in her sentencing given Herrmann's disadvantaged background and assessed prospects of rehabilitation.

The killing prompted public statements from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews condemning violence against women and calling for societal change, with commentators drawing parallels to the killings of Eurydice Dixon, Jill Meagher, and Maša Vukotić.