An inquest has determined that German backpacker Simone Strobel was killed through homicide in northern New South Wales, but it was unable to identify her killer. It has recommended further analysis by the police of two unmatched DNA samples recovered during the original investigation.
NSW state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan delivered her findings on Thursday regarding Strobel’s 2005 death in Lismore, located in the state’s northern rivers.
O’Sullivan rejected a 2007 inquest’s conclusion of a “very strong suspicion” that members of Strobel’s traveling group were involved in her death.
Amendments in the Coroners Act introduced in 2009 prevent O’Sullivan from declaring that “an offence has been committed by any person”.
“I accept that such a finding would now be prohibited and, noting the conclusions that I reach elsewhere in these findings, I also express my disagreement with Coroner MacMahon in relation to that finding,” O’Sullivan said.
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Last year, the court heard that alleged lies told by Strobel’s then-boyfriend Tobias Moran during the initial investigation had been given significant weight by police.
“I cannot be satisfied on the balance of probabilities [the lies] were due to a consciousness of guilt relating to Simone’s homicide,” O’Sullivan stated.
The 25-year-old schoolteacher’s naked body was found concealed under palm fronds at a sports ground, less than 100m from a Lismore caravan park where she was last seen six days earlier on 11 February 2005.
O’Sullivan informed the court, as well as Strobel’s sister Christina who joined via video link from Germany, that the backpacker had been touring Australia’s east coast for six months with Moran.
Moran, who now resides in Western Australia and attended Thursday’s hearing via video link alongside his solicitor, was charged with Strobel’s murder in 2022, but the charges were later withdrawn. He has consistently maintained his innocence and was compensated $190,000 for legal costs.
The court heard that on the night of her disappearance, the group, who had only been in Lismore for a day, drank at a nearby hotel before returning to their campsite.
O’Sullivan noted they returned at approximately 11.20pm, at which point there was an argument and Strobel left the group “alone and upset”. The state coroner mentioned it was difficult to ascertain what happened next.
Strobel was last observed by two witnesses around 11.55pm walking across a roundabout in the vicinity. “This was the last time Simone was seen alive by someone not involved in her death,” said O’Sullivan, adding several witnesses reported hearing screams around the time of Strobel’s disappearance.
Strobel was reported missing by Moran the next morning, and not found until five days later following a multi-agency search. A police dog handler found her body concealed in a bocce court at a hotel adjacent to the campground, after entering through a hole in the wire fence.
A 2007 inquest into her death held in Lismore found there was insufficient evidence to recommend charges, but concluded Strobel had been suffocated with a pillow or plastic bag.
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O’Sullivan disagreed with this finding, noting neither Australian nor German pathologists could determine a cause of death.
“I am unable to determine the cause of Simone’s death,” she said, but added that Strobel had “died as a result of homicide by a person or persons unknown”.
O’Sullivan concurred with the 2007 inquest that Strobel died on 12 February but disagreed with other findings, concluding on the balance of probabilities that the person or persons who killed Strobel likely did have a sexual motive and Strobel was likely sexually assaulted before she was killed.
She also found that Strobel was more likely than not killed outside the caravan park.
O’Sullivan recommended that NSW police’s unsolved homicide team conduct further testing of two unmatched DNA samples – a hair found on the fence of the bocce court and male DNA recovered from one of Strobel’s black tops – to determine “whether any matches can be found in the future”.
Strobel’s murder has remained unsolved, despite the establishment of a police strike force and the NSW government offering a $1m reward for information in 2020.
The new inquest was initiated in 2019 after being requested by NSW police and Strobel’s family, but it was paused before any hearings could take place in 2022, after charges against Moran were filed. It resumed for five days of hearings in November last year.
On Thursday, O’Sullivan acknowledged that going through two inquests had been “an extremely difficult process for Simone’s family”.
“The trauma of losing a loved one under such circumstances in a foreign country is unimaginable.
“I express my heartfelt condolences and hope that the Strobel family will one day learn the truth of what happened to Simone.”
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