A campaign to bring the body of allegedly-murdered Highton woman Natalina Angok to her ancestral homeland has raised more than $19,000.
Ms Angok’s family created a fundraising page to fly her remains to South Sudan for a “final tribute by her father and relatives who have not seen her in years”.
“Natalina Angok was our sister, our daughter, our cousin, our friend,” her family wrote on the page.
“Natalina was a generous and kind girl, her selfless, friendly, loving and humble character has always drawn people to her.”
“She would always seek the happiness of others. We still can’t believe we won’t see her again.”
The campaign had raised $19,000 on Monday morning, after more than 250 people attended two vigils for Ms Angok over the weekend.
About 200 mourners gathered at Federation Square on Sunday to pay tribute to Ms Angok, whose body was discovered in Melbourne’s Chinatown last Wednesday.
They clasped flowers in her favourite colour pink and her family wiped back tears as they addressed the crowd, The Age reported.
“We cannot blame anyone, we just put her in the hand of God,” her aunt Teresa Kau said.
“All we can do is live in peace … to try and find some peace.”
Another of her aunts, Monica Aleu, said Ms Angok’s mother was killed in the Sudanese civil war and her younger siblings had been relying on her for support.
“I want this sent to the government. We didn’t bring our children here to come and die,” said.
“We didn’t flee war for our children to be killed like chicken on the street … us Sudanese mothers don’t know what to do.”
Police arrested Ms Angok’s boyfriend Christopher Bell, 32, last Wednesday and charged him murder.
Mr Bell, from Cowes in Phillip Island, appeared before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last Friday for a brief filing hearing.
A magistrate remanded him in custody to appear for a committal mention on 30 August.
Mr Bell had appeared the day before at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, which heard he was a schizophrenic.
He had been released from an inpatient facility a week earlier and been unmedicated for some time, the court heard.
To donate visit www.gofundme.com/memorial-fund-for-natalina-angok.
