Copyright inquisitr
Disclaimer: The article has mentions of death. It’s been twenty years since German backpacker Simone Strobel vanished on a February night in 2005. Six days later, her body was found under palm fronds near a Lismore sports ground in New South Wales. Her death haunts both Australia and Germany. Now, a second coroner’s inquest has breathed life into the case. State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan has ruled that Simone’s death was a homicide, but has not been able to pinpoint by whom. With two DNA samples still unmatched, O’Sullivan recommended the case be referred to New South Wales’ Unsolved Homicide Team. But what new evidence could surface after all this time? In 2005, Simone Strobel, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher from Bavaria, was backpacking across Australia’s east coast with her boyfriend, Tobias Suckfuell (who now goes by Tobias Moran), his sister, and a friend. On February 11, after a night of drinking in Lismore, witnesses recalled an argument between Simone and Tobias. She was upset and stormed off alone into the darkness, and was never seen again. Six days later, a police dog found her body hidden under palm fronds near the Lismore Tourist Caravan Park where she’d been staying. Her cause of death couldn’t be determined. A German backpacker who was found dead two decades ago in NSW was likely killed by someone driven by a sexual motive, a coroner has found. https://t.co/3lJXfPepQE — 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) November 7, 2025 In 2022, Moran was charged with her murder, but those charges were withdrawn the following year. Prosecutors didn’t explain why, but Moran maintained his innocence and was later awarded roughly $190,000 in legal costs. Key evidence was a strand of hair found on a fence and male DNA discovered on Simone’s shirt. Both are still unmatched. The New South Wales government has maintained a $1 million reward for any information since 2020. Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan’s findings have brought Simone’s case back into focus. She ruled it “more likely than not” that Simone Strobel’s killer had a s—– motive, and that she was killed outside the caravan park. Unlike the 2007 inquest, O’Sullivan didn’t suggest anyone in her travel group was responsible. “I do not (…) accept that the evidence (…) support a finding by me that it is very unlikely Mr. Moran was involved.” O’Sullivan recommends sending the case to the Unsolved Homicide Team to revisit the DNA with cutting-edge methods. Moran welcomed the referral and told ABC News, “Her honor’s referral (…) gives me hope that this case will be given the (…) unbiased investigation Simone (…) deserved.” O’Sullivan classified the case as an open homicide with no determined cause of death. Simone Strobel’s sister, Christina, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that their parents had become “mere shadows of themselves, sinking deeper (…) into despair.” In Lismore, locals remember the police tape near the sports ground. The case has since sparked discussions across Australia about how cold cases are handled, and whether forensic technology can truly outrun time. Nearly two decades later, the case is still unsolved.
