Australian coroner calls for more investigations into German backpacker’s death 20 years ago

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – An Australian coroner on Thursday recommended that police further investigate the death of German backpacker Simone Strobel, whose body was found hidden in a park 20 years ago.

Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan concluded a second inquest into the death of the 25-year-old kindergarten teacher from Rieden, Bavaria, whose naked body was found under palm fronds in Lismore in New South Wales state on Feb. 17, 2005.

Her body was found 100 meters (109 yards) from the trailer where she had been staying with her German boyfriend Tobias Suckfuell, his sister Katrin Suckfuell and friend Jens Martin. Her body was found six days after she was reported missing.

Strobel’s boyfriend, who now goes by the name Tobias Moran, was charged with her murder and with perverting the course of justice in 2022. But the charges were dropped the following year. Prosecutors gave no reasons.

O’Sullivan said that Moran’s lawyers argued she should find it was “very unlikely” that Moran had any involvement in Strobel’s death.

O’Sullivan found it was unlikely Moran’s sister and Martin were involved in Strobel’s death and that it was unlikely Moran could have acted alone in killing Strobel and disposing of her body.

“I do not, however, accept that the evidence goes so far as to support a finding by me that it is very unlikely Mr. Moran was involved in Simone’s death,” O’Sullivan wrote.

O’Sullivan found that Strobel had been killed. But the coroner could not say what caused her death or who was responsible.

“I conclude that an open finding is the only available finding on this issue,” O’Sullivan wrote.

An original inquest similarly ended in 2007 with a coroner ruling there was insufficient evidence to recommend charges against anyone.

Police offered a 1 million Australian dollar ($650,000) reward for information in 2020.

Moran welcomed the coroner’s recommendation that the death be referred to detectives in the New South Wales Unsolved Homicide Team to search for more DNA evidence.

“Her honor’s referral of the case to unsolved homicide gives me hope that this case will be given the fair and unbiased investigation Simone always deserved,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“A review of the case by independent police, with a focus on outstanding DNA testing, is something I have been requesting for years, as I want nothing more than to see the real perpetrators who took Simone’s life brought to justice,” he added.

Strobel and Moran arrived in Australia as backpackers in 2004. He changed his name from Suckfuell in 2012 when he married his Australian wife Samantha Moran.