Homicide Confirmed in 2005 Simone Strobel Case, But Killer Remains Unknown
A renewed inquest into the 2005 death of German backpacker Simone Strobel has confirmed she died by homicide in northern New South Wales, Australia, but investigators remain unable to identify her killer. The NSW state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, delivered the findings on Thursday, recommending further analysis of two previously unmatched DNA samples recovered during the original investigation.
The case, which has spanned nearly two decades, has been marked by shifting suspicions and legal challenges. O’Sullivan’s findings reject a 2007 inquest’s conclusion of a “very strong suspicion” that individuals within Strobel’s traveling group were involved in her death. Legislative changes to the Coroners Act in 2009 prevent the coroner from definitively finding that an offense has been committed by a specific person.
“I accept that such a finding would now be prohibited,” O’Sullivan stated, “and, noting the conclusions that I reach elsewhere in these findings, I also express my disagreement with Coroner MacMahon in relation to that finding.”
The 25-year-old schoolteacher’s body was discovered concealed under palm fronds at a sports ground, approximately 100 meters from a Lismore caravan park where she was last seen on February 11, 2005. Strobel had been traveling Australia’s east coast for six months with her then-boyfriend, Tobias Moran.
Moran was initially charged with Strobel’s murder in 2022, but the charges were subsequently withdrawn. He has consistently maintained his innocence and was awarded $190,000 in legal costs. The court previously heard that statements allegedly made by Moran during the initial investigation were given significant weight by police. However, O’Sullivan concluded, “I cannot be satisfied on the balance of probabilities [the lies] were due to a consciousness of guilt relating to Simone’s homicide.”
According to the coroner’s report, Strobel and her group had arrived in Lismore only a day before her disappearance. On the night of February 11th, the group socialized at a local hotel before returning to their campsite around 11:20 PM, where an argument ensued. Strobel then left the group “alone and upset.” She was last seen alive by witnesses at approximately 11:55 PM walking near a roundabout in the area. “This was the last time Simone was seen alive by someone not involved in her death,” O’Sullivan noted, adding that several witnesses reported hearing screams around the time of Strobel’s disappearance.
The missing person’s report was filed by Moran the following morning, and a multi-agency search led to the discovery of Strobel’s body five days later. A police dog handler located her remains concealed in a bocce court at a hotel adjacent to the campground, accessing the area through a breach in the wire fence.
A previous inquest in 2007 suggested Strobel had been suffocated with a pillow or plastic bag, but O’Sullivan disagreed with this assessment. She noted that neither Australian nor German pathologists were able to definitively determine a cause of death. “I am unable to determine the cause of Simone’s death,” she stated, “but added that Strobel had ‘died as a result of homicide by a person or persons unknown.’”
Despite agreeing with the 2007 inquest’s finding that Strobel died on February 12th, O’Sullivan diverged on other points. She concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that the perpetrator or perpetrators likely had a sexual motive and that Strobel was likely sexually assaulted before her death. She also determined it was more probable that Strobel was killed outside the caravan park.
To potentially advance the investigation, O’Sullivan recommended that NSW police’s unsolved homicide team conduct further testing on two unmatched DNA samples: a hair found on the fence of the bocce court and male DNA recovered from a black top belonging to Strobel. The goal is to determine “whether any matches can be found in the future.”
The Strobel case remains unsolved despite the establishment of a dedicated police strike force and a $1 million reward offered by the NSW government in 2020 for information leading to an arrest. The recent inquest was initiated in 2019 at the request of NSW police and Strobel’s family, but was paused in 2022 following the charges against Moran. Hearings resumed for five days in November of last year.
O’Sullivan acknowledged the immense emotional toll the two inquests have taken on Strobel’s family, particularly her sister Christina, who joined the proceedings via video link from Germany. “The trauma of losing a loved one and in these circumstances in a foreign country is unimaginable,” she said. “I express my heartfelt condolences and wish that the Strobel family will one day know the truth of what happened to Simone.”
