A 31-year-old man has handed himself in to police over the death of Indigenous woman Jayda Lou-Eve Allen Bonner at a Carlton apartment, detectives say.
Police said the Carlton man attended a police station and was arrested. Homicide squad detectives are due to interview him over the death of the 21-year-old, whose body was found in a Cardigan Street residence at about 1.45am on Saturday.
Police said the man knew Ms Bonner. A 60-year-old man was arrested shortly after her body was discovered but was later released.
Tributes grow for Jayda Allen Bonner
Ms Bonner’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief, with messages of love placed on a wall near the apartment where she was found.
“Jayda, we love you, you mattered,” read one tribute.
A smoking ceremony in her honour is due to take place on Saturday at the public housing towers on Lygon Street, Carlton. Attendees are then expected to walk to Parliament House to demonstrate against domestic violence.
A fundraising page set up in Ms Bonner’s honour has raised more than $6,000.
Her aunt, Kellie Carter-Bell, said the support shown to the family had helped them cope with the loss.
“I wish Jayda could have seen this. She would be rapt to see that people cared,” Ms Carter-Bell said.
She described her niece as someone who had protected children from being harassed, saying: “That’s the kind of person she was, she had a soul of gold.”
Ms Carter-Bell said the family wanted people attending Saturday’s rally to understand the reality faced by victims of abuse.
“Please never ask us, ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ What you can say is, ‘What can I do to help you get out safely?’” she said.
Ms Carter-Bell said Ms Bonner and her mother had filed a police report about alleged abuse six weeks ago, but the complaint was later withdrawn.
She also alleged that Ms Bonner had been held captive in the Cardigan Street unit for months and had suffered bite marks across her body. She said her niece had once jumped into a stranger’s car and been driven to her mother’s home before later returning to the apartment.
Ms Carter-Bell said the alleged abuse had made it difficult for the family to say goodbye. She said relatives could not see Ms Bonner’s body because of the nature of her injuries, although her mother had been able to hold her hand one last time.
“We can’t say our goodbyes properly,” she said. “We have to do it in a way that won’t leave us scarred forever.”
According to advocacy organisation Australian Femicide Watch, 55 women have been killed as a result of gendered violence in Australia in 2026.
