A NSW man will be formally charged over the death of a young woman in far north Queensland.
The body of white water rafting guide Jo La Spina was found in a bedroom of a Bingil Bay home, south of Cairns, on April 19.
The 26-year-old local woman spent the previous evening having dinner and dancing with a group of friends before returning to a friend's house and heading to bed alone.
Detectives say they aren't looking for a weapon but won't yet reveal how she died.
Miss La Spina's family say they're devastated.
"I'm struggling to understand why someone would take you away, why someone would hurt you so," her mother Shelley wrote in a letter to the Cairns Post.
"I will love and cherish you forever. Oh my sweet, sweet, beautiful baby."
On Monday, 31-year-old Musa Brandon Ngwira briefly appeared at Sydney's Sutherland Local Court in connection to her death, after being arrested on Sunday.
The court ordered him to be extradited to face Cairns Magistrate Court on Wednesday.
Once in Queensland, Ngwira will be charged although police couldn't confirm what the charge would be.
Cairns Detective Acting Inspector Kevin Goan says Ngwira and Miss La Spina weren't in a relationship and didn't live or work together but had socialised on a number of occasions as they had mutual friends.
Ngwira, a South African citizen, had been in Australia for at least a year and moved to far north Queensland from NSW in March to take up a job in the eco-tourism industry.
Insp Goan says police had their sights on Ngwira from the start of the investigation and detectives aren't looking for anyone else in relation to the death.
"I'm happy that we are now at a point where we have the standard of proof that we need that a person will be brought to justice for the death of Miss La Spina," he told media in Cairns on Monday.
Insp Goan says Ngwira, described as being of Sudanese appearance, had been had been staying with his girlfriend in Cronulla when he was arrested.
