Simone Strobel: Fresh inquest probes 'lies' over backpacker's death

An inquest into the death of a German backpacker nearly two decades ago will examine lies told by her former boyfriend and others that “derailed” the initial investigation.

The body of 25-year-old kindergarten teacher Simone Strobel was found concealed under palm fronds at a sportsground in Lismore, in the NSW northern rivers region, in February 2005.

On Monday, a second inquest opened in Sydney to examine a large body of evidence that had emerged since a 2007 hearing was unable to find any person directly responsible for her death.

Counsel assisting Philip Strickland SC said the evidence to be examined included lies told by Ms Strobel’s boyfriend at the time, Tobias Moran, about their relationship.

Mr Moran, who attended the inquest, was charged with Ms Strobel’s murder in 2022 before prosecutors opted not to proceed and the charges were withdrawn.

Ms Strobel spent the two weeks leading up to her death travelling the east coast of Australia with Mr Moran, then known as Tobias Suckfuell, his sister Katrin Suckfuell and a fourth person, Jens Martin.

All three people had lied to police about whether Mr Moran and Ms Strobel had been arguing, how intoxicated they were on the night she went missing and whether they had consumed illicit drugs, Mr Strickland said.

Mr Moran later claimed he told the lies so Ms Strobel’s disappearance was taken seriously by police, the inquest was told.

“If it was Tobias Moran’s intention in relation to the lies was to make police treat the disappearance seriously ... assuming he was not involved - his lies had almost completely the opposite effect,” Mr Strickland said.

“His lies assisted in derailing the initial part of the investigation. They focused the investigation on them.

“The police asked themselves, quite properly, ‘Why did these people lie to us?’.”

On the night of the disappearance, the group were seen drinking in a nearby hotel and continued to drink and smoke cannabis after returning to the campground.

The group told police Ms Strobel left the campsite after becoming annoyed with Tobias as he and his sister argued about what was described as “family matters”.

“All three of them said Simone left the caravan park and they never saw her again,” Mr Strickland said.

Diary entries made by Ms Strobel in the days before her death recorded issues in her relationship with Mr Moran and the mood of the group in general.

“Today began just as s*** as yesterday ended,” Ms Strobel wrote on February 11, the day before she was reported missing.

In another entry from around the same time, she wrote she was getting “the baddest vibration” since arriving in Australia with Mr Moran.

Nevertheless, evidence from her family and friends was that she and her then-boyfriend had a generally loving and harmonious relationship, Mr Strickland said.

Ms Strobel’s sister Christina and brother Alexander travelled from Germany to represent the family at the inquest in their ongoing search for answers.

The week-long hearing will also examine physical evidence, Simone’s cause of death and various persons of interest identified as being potentially involved.

Mr Moran was charged with her murder and intending to pervert the course of justice in July 2022 after being extradited to NSW from Western Australia.

The charges were later withdrawn and prosecutors were ordered to pay him $190,000 as compensation.

A $1 million reward for information was announced in 2020, 15 years after NSW police began working with German authorities on the investigation.