Couple allegedly blackmailed for $1000 after begging for return of phone with photos of dying baby

A couple who tried desperately to relocate a lost phone filled with photos of their dying baby girl were blackmailed by a woman for $1000, it has emerged. Photo / Supplied

An Uber Eats delivery cyclist allegedly tried to blackmail a couple for $1000 after they desperately sought the return of their lost phone filled with photos of their dying baby girl.

After the couple lost the phone, their baby Amiyah Windross, 11 months, died from an undiagnosed neurological disorder.

The parents, Jay and Dee Windross, from Melbourne, sent out a desperate plea after they left the phone filled with photos and precious memories in the toilets at Chadstone Shopping Centre on April 20.

The Boronia couple begged the public in a number of social media posts for anyone with information about the lost Samsung Galaxy S8 in a purple case to get in contact, with no questions asked, news.com.au reports.

Five days after losing the phone, the couple reported that little Amiyah tragically died of her illness.

A woman allegedly tried to blackmail the couple for $1000 for the phone, as they said goodbye to their infant daughter.

According to father Jay Windross, the person who contacted them allegedly demanded the money be "deposited into their account for the return of the phone".

Police have charged Siti Nurhidayah, 24, with one count of blackmail for allegedly demanding cash from the desperate parents.

The Springvale woman faced Ringwood Magistrates' Court today and was denied bail.

She had been living in Australia for four months, working as an Uber Eats delivery cyclist. She has two young children in Malaysia.

Mr Windross said the phone had still not been found.

The 24 year old has only been living in Aus since last Sept. She’d been working as an Uber Eats delivery cyclist. Her lawyer is arguing she isn’t a flight risk, despite having 2 young kids at home in Malaysia. pic.twitter.com/SThglH8PMD

— Annie Kearney (@anniemaykearney) April 29, 2019

Mrs Windross said on social media that a number of people had falsely reported finding the phone.

"I have not had my phone handed back and am still looking for it and the memories it holds," she wrote online last week.

"We have also tried multiple ways of back ups to retrieve the photos, none have worked."

The couple explained that their baby, who had spent about 200 of her 330 days alive in hospital, had most of her life chronicled in photos and videos on that phone.

"All the photos of (Amiyah) during the day, doing things, it's all on Dee's phone," Mr Windross said last week.

"We can get another phone, but it is not about that. It's all about the photos.

"We beg you as grieving parents not to wipe the phone."

Jay said doctors noticed there was something not quite right with their baby girl "within hours of her being born".

"She spent her first week of life in special care," he said.

"She's about 330 days old, and she has spent nearly 200 of those in hospital".