Merna Kasha alienated friends before she was found in Green Valley Creek

Merna Kasha was struggling to cope with loneliness after alienating her friends and consumed by a new relationship in the weeks leading to her death.

One friend, who did not want to be named, said the 18-year-old ‘felt like everyone was against her’ as she faced drug and assault charges and was hit with two AVOs against a relative and a former friend.

Ms Kasha’s body was recovered from Green Valley Creek in Canley Heights about 2pm on Saturday after a month-long search. 

Police are still investigating, although early indications suggest her death is not suspicious. 

The teenager started isolating herself from her closest friends earlier in the year and ‘wasn’t acting like herself’ as she became consumed in a new relationship and fought with her family.

Ms Kasha was convinced ‘she didn’t have anyone to talk to about her problems’ and began smoking marijuana to cope.

Friends say she became increasingly private about her relationship with both her boyfriend and her family.

‘She really wanted to make things work. She never even told me his name,’ one friend said of her boyfriend.

Ms Kasha would often smoke marijuana in the staircase of a public car parking lot in Fairfield as she ‘waited on her boyfriend to call or message her’.

A body believed to be that of 18-year-old Merna Kasha was found about 2pm on Saturday afternoon in the Green Valley Creek in Canley Heights – a month after she mysteriously disappeared

But she had never mentioned going down to Greek Valley Creek and friends say they can’t imagine why she’d ever head there alone.  

By the time Ms Kasha disappeared on April 28, she’d either blocked or deleted most of her old friends. Her Instagram account was made private and she’d stopped replying to messages from people trying to check in on her.

She was simultaneously dealing with several matters before the courts – including drug possession charges. 

‘She was a really sweet hearted girl,’ the friend said. ‘My heart is just broken.’ 

Police appealed for information into her mystery disappearance as recently as last Wednesday, which suggests new evidence came to light which prompted their discovery.

The creek where Ms Kasha’s decomposed body was found is just seven minutes from her family home. 

About 8pm on April 28 – the day of her disappearance – the teenager was dropped on a street just eight minutes from the creek.

While she was never seen again, detectives believe she was in touch with family several times in the days after she vanished before contact stopped entirely.

Merna Kasha, 18, disappeared on April 28 but police believe she communicated with family for several days after she was last seen

It’s understood she was distressed about her mounting legal woes. 

Ms Kasha had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, destroying property, stalking and breaching an AVO and fronted court over the matters just two days before she went missing.

The 18-year-old had no criminal history until March 2022, but in the six weeks prior to her disappearance she fronted up to court on seven occasions as her life spiralled out of control. 

In that period, Ms Kasha was also hit with apprehended violence orders against two people – a close relative and an 18-year-old former friend – and charged with drug possession. 

She was convicted over the matters and sentenced to a seven month community corrections order.

Her matters last appeared in court on May 11, where she was convicted in absence for drug possession. 

Ms Kasha was ordered not to be anywhere near the relative’s home and told she must undertake drug and alcohol counselling as part of her community corrections order.

Detectives wearing blue gloves and holding huge binders left her family home about 1.45pm as investigations into Ms Kasha’s death continue. Several brown paper bags of evidence were removed from the scene

The teenager’s distressed parents were comforted by loved ones as detectives sifted through her belongings at the family home in Fairfield on Monday afternoon.

‘They’re devastated. Their baby is dead, how do you go on after that?’ one family friend, who did not want to be named, said as she left the home.

‘We’re all mourning. What has happened with Merna is a tragedy.’ 

Police are still working to piece together her final days as they investigate how she came to be found in the muddy, isolated creek on Saturday afternoon. 

Detectives wearing blue gloves and holding huge binders left her family home about 1.45pm as investigations into Ms Kasha’s death continue. 

Several brown paper bags of evidence were removed from the scene as distraught relatives watched on.

Police will investigate how Ms Kasha came to be at the creek. Her body was found at the end of a dead end street and on the opposite side of a walking track that follows the water’s edge

Police at the scene on Saturday after receiving reports a body had been discovered

Family and friends arrived at the home on Monday afternoon, many bringing dishes and bags brimming with supplies. 

Police were simultaneously scouring the creek where Ms Kasha’s body was found. Specialist divers spent the morning in the muddy waters looking for clues. 

A police source said the police was ‘pretty decomposed’ after an extended period in the elements.

‘The body was found in a creek after some pretty harsh weather conditions,’ the source said.

‘It’s a really sad situation.’

Police divers have begun scouring a muddy, isolated creek bed for clues after the body of a teenager who has been missing for a month was discovered.

Neighbours told Daily Mail Australia their quiet dead end street was overrun by police on Saturday as the creek became the centre of the investigation into Ms Kasha’s disappearance.

‘It was chaos, but I knew nothing,’ one resident, Mr Tai, said. ‘My wife heard the commotion but we didn’t know it was a body, we thought a house must be on fire.’

Mr Tai was shocked to learn – via a group of young tradesmen working next door – that a body had been discovered in the creek behind his house.

‘It’s so shallow down there. All mud and rubbish like trolleys. It goes to dirt in no rain,’ he said.

Significant rainfall in recent weeks has helped to fill the creek, and police divers were required at the scene on Monday morning to aid in the investigation

But significant rainfall in recent weeks has helped to fill the creek, and police divers were required at the scene on Monday morning to aid in the investigation.

Police made a last ditch appeal for information into Ms Kasha’s disappearance just last week. It’s unclear if new information came to light on the back of that appeal that led to this development. 

Ms Kasha was last seen when a family member dropped her off on Kihilla St in the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield Heights around 8pm on Thursday, April 28.

Her family was informed the discovery was likely the teenager. The body was found at the end of a dead end street and on the opposite side of a walking track that follows the water’s edge.

It is lined by dense bush and trees which significantly reduce visibility.