Murdered backpacker's ashes to be scattered in NZ

  • 31/08/2016
Mia Ayliffe-Chung (Mia Ayliffe-Chung/Facebook)
Mia Ayliffe-Chung (Mia Ayliffe-Chung/Facebook)

Mia Ayliffe-Chung loved to travel. She was backpacking in Australia on a working holiday until she was brutally murdered last week in a knife attack in a north Queensland hostel.

The 21-year-old was allegedly repeatedly stabbed by French national Smail Ayad, who allegedly shouted out "Allahu Akbar" as he killed her.

In a moving statement in The Independent, her mother, Rosie Ayliffe, said her ashes will be spread around the world - including New Zealand.

"She has friends all over the place. Hence the plan to create a place of remembrance here, but also to give various people vials of Mia's ashes to scatter in places dear to her or to them," Ms Ayliffe said.

"That way she can visit places she hasn't visited yet. Canada, New Zealand, Singapore. People are making huge journeys to mourn her."

In her statement, Ms Ayliffe also attacked the anti-Islamic "nonsense" spread after her daughter's death.

"Smail Ayad - the French man being held on suspicion of my daughter's murder - is not an Islamic fundamentalist, he has never set foot in a mosque," she said.

"After talking about the misrepresentation of Mia's death in the media as an act of terrorism on the part of an Islamic fundamentalist, the minister delivering the service suggested we include a Koranic reading, and he will find something suitable with a friend who is an Islamic scholar."

Ms Ayliffe is now preparing for her daughter's final journey around the world.

"I also think that wise little girl was here for a reason," she says, "and part of my journey will be to find out what that reason was."

A British man who tried to save Ms Ayliffe from the attack died in hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Tom Jackson, 30, tried to shield Ms Ayliffe, but ended up getting stabbed in the eye, head and torso.

Newshub.