Elly Warren's father believes her body was moved near a toilet block to throw authorities off track, as an inquest was told she was likely murdered by a stranger.
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The 20-year-old Melbourne woman was found dead outside a toilet block in the Mozambique beach town of Tofo in November 2016.
A three-day inquest into her death began at Melbourne's Coroners Court on Tuesday, where one of the last people to see Ms Warren alive appeared as a witness.
Jade O'Shea, who gave evidence remotely from New Zealand, met Ms Warren while she was working at a popular diving resort in Tofo, Casa Barry, and the two became friends.
She said a group of friends, including Ms Warren, went to Victor's Bar and then to another friend's house to make cocktails.
After one or two hours, the cocktails ran out and Ms Warren left to go back to Victor's Bar because she was bored.
"She definitely wasn't drunk, she was completely coherent and sober," Ms O'Shea told the court.
When she and the others arrived at Victor's Bar, Ms Warren was not there and it was crowded, so the group sat in front of the bar and drank beer.
Ms Warren then walked around the corner and gestured to the group, as though she was going to get a beer from the bar and join them.
That was the last time Ms O'Shea saw her friend, at about 11pm on November 8.
She left after midnight to return home to Casa Barry and believed Ms Warren had gone back to her backpackers to sleep.
But the next morning she found out Ms Warren's body had been found at the toilet block, near where Ms O'Shea had last seen her.
She believes Ms Warren was harmed by "an unknown person" that night.
"I know for sure that what happened to her was someone else and she was killed and that nothing that she did contributed to that," Ms O'Shea said.
State coroner John Cain is investigating what Ms Warren's medical cause of death was and the circumstances surrounding her death.
Three autopsies were performed on her body after she died, one in Mozambique, another in South Africa and the third in Australia.
The Mozambique autopsy found homicide was her medico-legal cause of death, by suffocation on sand.
But the Australian autopsy could not determine a cause of death.
Ms O'Shea said the sand near where her body was found was very thick.
Outside court, Ms Warren's father Paul said "there's no way" thick sand could have reached that deep into her lungs.
"She was definitely murdered down the main beach and her body was moved to that area," he said.
"Now I think it's to sort of throw everybody off track and to cast doubt."
He hoped the inquest would bring closure to his family, who have been waiting seven years for answers.
"I had to do my own investigation for seven years, the AFP didn't help us," Mr Warren said.
"I had to go over there twice to try and find out as much evidence as I could and it's difficult."
Mr Warren said he hoped federal police would learn from the experience and offer better assistance to families with loved ones who have died overseas.
In particular, he hopes the AFP becomes faster at issuing mutual assistance requests to third world countries, like Mozambique.
The inquest will continue on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
