The 21-year-old student at Melbourne’s LaTrobe University is believed to have been returning home from a comedy show

A young woman who was killed outside a Bundoora shopping centre was an Israeli student who was on a video call to her younger sister when she was attacked.

Aiia Maasarwe, 21, had been in Australia for about six months on a study abroad program at LaTrobe University.

She had been returning home to her apartment near the university’s main Bundoora campus, just a few hundred metres from the Polaris shopping centre where her body was found on Wednesday morning.

Police believe she may have been followed home from the city by a man who boarded the no.86 tram and got off at the same stop as her on the corner of Plenty Road and Main Drive.

Her uncle, Rame Maasarwe, said she was on the phone to her younger sister about 11pm on Tuesday when she was apparently attacked. Her father was expected to arrive in Australia from Israel on Thursday to identify her body.

Police appeal for help after suspected murder of woman in Melbourne Read more

“Her sister was on the phone with her, she was on FaceTime, and she heard what happened,” he said. “The phone has fallen down, but she heard the voices over the phone.”

Detective inspector Andrew Stamper said Maasarwe’s sister tried to get in contact with her after the phone dropped out, and then notified police.

Stamper said the phone call took place about 12.10am.

“We were pretty certain that she was actually involved in a conversation with her sister, who is overseas, at the time that the attack actually took place,” Stamper told reporters on Thursday. “The contact that we got [from Maasarwe’s sister] was at about 7am in the morning, which coincidently was pretty much was at exactly the same time as the deceased was located.”

Maasarwe had been at the Comics Lounge, a comedy club in North Melbourne, earlier on Tuesday night, and was driven in to the city by friends so she could catch the 86 tram in Bourke Street.

“We believe that she has got off the tram at the intersection of Plenty Road and Main Drive, at the Polaris shopping centre, and then it would be a short walk of less than 50m to the place on the pavement where we believe the attack commenced,” Stamper said.

It was less than 1km to her house.

Police have released CCTV footage of Maasarwe from Tuesday night showing the clothes she was wearing, and have asked anyone who saw her that night to contact police.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Victoria police have released CCTV footage and objects of interest in the death of Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe. Composite: Victoria Police

Police have also released images of a Cotton On brand grey t-shirt with dark shoulders and a black baseball cap with “1986” printed on the front. Both items of clothing were located in parkland within 100m to where her body was found and Stamper said he was “very satisfied” that they belonged to the attacker.

He called for anyone who saw someone wearing those clothes, or knows someone who owns those clothes, to contact police.

“I am very satisfied that those were items of clothing worn by the offender when he committed this horrendous attack and disposed by him very soon afterwards,” Stamper said. “Someone in the community knows something about this and we need them to be accountable to this, for actually delivering this person to us or information about them so we can get this person off the streets.

“We have a grieving family who has had to fly halfway across the world under the most horrific circumstances and we want to be able to give them some answers.”

Stamper said police believed it was a random and opportunistic attack, but he would not say whether she had been sexually assaulted.

“I don’t want to go into specifics out of respect for the family and also it’s early days in the investigation ... but all I will say is this was an horrific attack,” he said. “This was an absolutely horrendous, horrific attack inflicted on a completely innocent young woman who was a visitor to our city.”

It is seven months since Melbourne woman Eurydice Dixon, 22, was raped and murdered in Princes Park in Carlton North by a man who followed her home from the city after she performed at a comedy show.

Police have asked anyone who was on the no.86 tram or in the area near the Polaris shopping centre between 11pm and 1am on Tuesday night, and who may have either seen something or have dashboard or CCTV camera footage, to contact Crime Stoppers.

Rame Maasarwe said his family was “shocked” that Aiia had been attacked in Australia.

“We thought it was very safe there in Australia,” he told Guardian Australia. “We never thought something like this would happen in Australia.”

Aiia is the second of four daughters, Rame Maasarwe’s brother’s children. She studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University alongside her older sister before coming to Australia.

“She was a very good person, she never hurt anybody,” he said. “She was a good student, she liked to have fun. She laughed a lot. She was a very happy person, very serious about her studies.”

Flowers and messages have been left at the area near the Polaris shopping centre car park, where Maasarwe’s body was discovered by tradesmen at 7am on Tuesday.

One of the messages said: “Everyone has the right to get home safely.”

Acting superintendent Tony Ryan from North West Metro police said police would increase the number of patrols in the Bundoora area, adding: “We all have a right to feel safe.”