Audrey Griffin alleged murder: The scary thought Eliza Paschke and millions of Australian women had when she heard the body had been found

Warning: This story contains the name of a deceased Indigenous person

Violence against women has been a plague on our country for decades, and women and girls have learned to live with the unthinkable: that feeling that we’re never truly safe, sometimes not even in our own homes.

So we send our location to friends when we go on first dates, walk home with keys clutched between our fingers and never wear headphones after dark.

We do everything in our power to protect ourselves, and we still die.

READ MORE: Eliza Paschke: ‘I wish I didn’t have this story to tell’

When Eliza Paschke read about Audrey Griffin’s alleged murder, her first thought was “that could have been me”.

It was a sentiment echoed in the minds of millions of women across Australia.

The Australian Femicide Watch reported that 103 Australian women were killed as a result of murder, manslaughter or neglect in 2024.

At least 24 women are dead as a result of violence in Australia so far in 2025, including Griffin, and more will die before the year is out.

WATCH: Call for action on violence against women after teen’s alleged murder

Griffin’s body was found partially submerged in Erina Creek on the NSW Central Coast in March.

Police allege she was killed by 53-year-old Adrian Noel Torrens, who was found dead in his prison cell three days after he was arrested and charged with the alleged murder.

Police said the death was not suspicious.

Police don’t believe Torrens knew Griffin before her alleged murder.

That last detail hit home for Paschke, who is one of the 1.1 million Australian women who have experienced violence at the hands of a stranger – usually a man.

In 2019, The Block contestant was sexually and physically assaulted by a man she didn’t know.

Though police were able to extract a DNA profile of her perpetrator, he has never been identified or apprehended and Paschke doubts he’ll ever be brought to justice.

“That’s the really scary thing, some of us are just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she told 9honey.

READ MORE: Nine in 10 Australian women feel sexual violence is ‘inevitable’

Violence against women has been an issue in Australia for decades and it’s not just coming from strangers.

More than 3.6 million Australian women have experienced violence at the hands of a known person.

One in four have been subjected to violence, emotional abuse or economic abuse by a partner and one woman is killed every nine days by a current or former partner.

In 2023 alone, 58 women were killed in domestic homicides according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), up from 35 killed in 2022 and 33 killed in 2021.

In NSW alone, more than 330 women were victims of domestic-violence context homicides between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2022.

About 40 per cent of women in Australia have experienced violence since the age of 15, one in five have experienced sexual violence and more than 50 per cent have experienced sexual harassment.

The figures are damning and the epidemic of violence against women is costing the Australian economy more than $21 billion each year, based on 2015 analysis.

And this violence isn’t going away.

Women keep dying, the statistics keep piling up, and that won’t change until Australia comes together as a nation to tackle this plague of gender-based violence.

Women have been advocating for themselves for years, fronting grassroots groups and speaking up in courtrooms and Parliament House in the hopes of putting an end to the violence and the deaths.

The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032 has made some headway.

Now it’s time for men to step up and take action too.

While the data shows that perpetrators of violence against women are overwhelmingly male, Australian men can also have a huge positive impact by speaking out against gender-based violence and holding themselves and others accountable.

“We are not doing well enough as a society. This is a whole-of-society problem,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on his federal election campaign trail earlier this week.

“We need men as well to have conversations with each other, to call it out when they see unacceptable behaviour, to address it and have those conversations.”

READ MORE: After years of abuse at her father’s hands, this was the moment that broke Jelena Dokic

Men have just as much capacity for kindness, empathy and compassion as women and their involvement is vital to tackling this deep-rooted issue.

Some are already taking strides to make a difference.

“Since sharing my story, a number of men in my life have sent me the most moving and meaningful messages about how they promise to do a lot better when they see or hear something that’s not OK,” Paschke revealed.

“Parents have also made contact to say they’re doing everything they can to instill respect and kindness in their children.”

Ending the cycle of gender-based violence will take efforts across the board, from educating boys and girls on healthy relationships and respect, to strengthening legislation around gender-based violence to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.

Paschke also wants to see a significant boost in funding for frontline services, response and recovery programs, and mental health services that are often vital for survivors.

“When I was assaulted in 2019, I was told at my first government-funded counselling session that less than one per cent of perpetrators are found guilty,” Paschke said.

“We need to look at why these figures are so low and ensure penalties for these crimes are severe enough to deter them, because the current systems aren’t working.”

It will take time, money and collaboration from a grassroots level all the way up to the federal government, but it will be worth it to save the lives of women like Griffin.

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Her death has already inspired some action, with Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both pledging $20 million in funding to create a women’s and children’s trauma recovery centre on the NSW Central Coast if they’re elected.

“One death from violence against women is one too many,” Albanese said.

The centre won’t fix the problem overnight but it’s another step in the right direction and one that is desperately needed if we’re to ever end violence against women in Australia.

Until then, tragedies like Griffin’s alleged murder will keep happening.

“I think the moral of this story is that things need to dramatically and urgently change at every level, from every angle,” Paschke said.

Help is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

For men working to change, help is available from the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.

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