Inquest finds German backpacker Simone Strobel killed by homicide – but can’t say who attacker was | Crime – Australia

An inquest found German backpacker Simone Strobel died of a homicide in northern New South Wales, but could not say who killed her. He suggested police further analyze two mismatched DNA samples seized during the original investigation.

NSW state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan delivered her findings into Strobel’s death in 2005 at Lismore in the state’s northern rivers on Thursday.

O’Sullivan rejected the 2007 inquest’s finding that there was a “very strong suspicion” that members of Strobel’s travel group were involved in his death.

Legal changes introduced to the Coroners Act in 2009 mean O’Sullivan cannot establish that “an offense has been committed by any person”.

“I accept that such a finding would now be barred, and I also express my disagreement with Coroner MacMahon in relation to this finding, noting the conclusions I have reached elsewhere in these findings,” O’Sullivan said.

Last year the court heard that police had given great importance to alleged lies told by Strobel’s then-boyfriend Tobias Moran during the initial investigation.

“I cannot be satisfied on the balance of probabilities [the lies] O’Sullivan said it was motivated by an awareness of guilt over Simone’s murder.

The 25-year-old teacher’s naked body was found hidden under palm fronds on a sports field, less than 100 meters from the Lismore caravan park where she was last seen six days earlier on February 11, 2005.

O’Sullivan told the court and Strobel’s sister Christina, who attended by video link from Germany, that the backpacker had toured Australia’s east coast with Moran for six months.

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Moran, who now lives in Western Australia and attended Thursday’s hearing via video link with his lawyer, was charged with Strobel’s murder in 2022, but the charges were later withdrawn. He always maintained his innocence and was awarded $190,000 in legal fees.

The court heard the group, who had only been in Lismore for a day, had been drinking at a nearby hotel before returning to the campsite on the night they disappeared from Lismore.

O’Sullivan said they returned around 11.20pm, when an argument broke out and Strobel left the group “alone and sad”. The state medical examiner said it’s hard to know what will happen next.

Strobel was last seen by two witnesses walking at an intersection in the area around 11:55 p.m. “This was the last time Simone was seen alive by anyone unrelated to her death,” O’Sullivan said, adding that several witnesses reported hearing screams about the time Strobel disappeared.

Strobel was reported missing by Moran the next morning and was not found until five days later following a multi-agency search. A police dog handler found his body hidden in the bocce court of a hotel adjacent to the campsite after climbing through a hole in the fence.

A 2007 Lismore inquest into his death found there was insufficient evidence to recommend charges, but concluded Strobel had been smothered with a pillow or plastic bag.

O’Sullivan disputed this finding and stated that neither Australian nor German pathologists were able to determine the cause of death.

“I cannot determine the cause of Simone’s death,” he said, but added that Strobel “died as a result of being killed by an unknown person or persons.”

O’Sullivan accepted the 2007 inquest that Strobel died on February 12, but disputed other findings and concluded on the balance of probabilities that the person or persons who killed Strobel probably had a sexual motive and that Strobel was likely sexually assaulted before she was killed.

It also found that Strobel was more likely to be killed outside the trailer park.

O’Sullivan suggested that NSW police’s unsolved homicide squad further test two unique DNA samples – a hair found on the bocce ballet fence and male DNA from Strobel’s black top – to determine “whether any matches may be found in the future”.

Strobel’s murder remains unsolved despite the establishment of a police strike force and the NSW government offering a $1 million reward for information in 2020.

The new investigation was launched in 2019 at the request of NSW police and Strobel’s family, but was halted before any hearing could take place in 2022 following the accusations against Moran. Five-day hearings continued in November last year.

On Thursday O’Sullivan acknowledged going through two inquests had been “an extremely difficult process for Simone’s family”.

“The trauma of losing a loved one in a foreign country under these conditions is unimaginable.

“I offer my sincerest condolences and hope that the Strobel family will one day learn the truth about what happened to Simone.”