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Lots of courthouses in Australia are relics of the past, but the state coroner's court in New South Wales is a gleaming modern building.
A shiny new mix of glass and sharp lines in Sydney's western suburbs.
In November 2024, this building is the location of the second inquest into the death of Simone Strobel.
Simone's brother, Alexander and sister, Christina, have come from Germany to be here.
On the first day, they stand in the shadow of the courthouse and address the media about the sister they lost in 2005.
Simone was my big sister and Alexander's little sister.
My sister basically raised me up. We had a very close bond and she was violently taken from me.
She was a lovely person who enjoyed life.
She was looking forward to adventure to Australia.
She is daily missed by her family and her friends.
Almost 20 years have passed since Simone was killed and still, her family has no answers, no justice.
Alexander is clear about exactly what he wants to know from the inquest.
To bring us more light consistently to the police and our family, about the circumstances my sister's murder.
We are very hopeful that during this course of this inquest we will find out why so many lies were told and what is the truth about my sister's death.
Toby and Sam Iran have flown to Sydney to be at the inquest as well, but Toby isn't obliged to give evidence and he doesn't.
Instead, he watches. As the hearings get underway, the two families will sit just meters apart over five days.
This new inquest will be in front of a new coroner, the state coroner of New South Wales, Theresa O'Sullivan.
It will be up to her to come to a conclusion about what happened to Simone.
She will be presented with far more information and here from far more people than the other coroner back in 2007.
This inquest was actually supposed to happen two years earlier, but then Toby got arrested and it was all put on hold.
Now, the time has finally come for a second chance to find answers.
But as both families file into the courtroom on that spring morning, what they don't know is this inquest will turn the whole case on its head.
I'm Richard Baker and from Unravel, this is Lise in Lisbon.
[Music]
Simone's second inquest begins when a serious looking man with silver grey hair rises to his feet.
Philip Strickland, SC, is a senior lawyer, a barrister. Over the years, he's prosecuted and defended accused murderers.
Strickland's in the role of council assisting, which means he's here to help present all the evidence to the coroner so she can find the truth.
Also in the courtroom, lawyers representing some of the people present, Toby included.
As the proceedings get underway, council assisting Strickland runs through some of the most important evidence he'll be presenting over the next five days.
He makes clear that he'll be presenting information on some different theories about how Simone died and who could have been responsible.
Then Strickland starts calling witnesses. One of them is a man who says he heard a confession.
Yeah, I was very nervous, but also had this sense of determination that I was going to do my best.
Heath Tunstall used to live at the Lisbon Caravan Park.
You heard from him in a previous episode when he told the story of how he heard another man at the park confessed to killing Simone soon after her body was found.
Heath claimed this man said shocking things about Simone, saying he killed her and calling her a Nazi bitch.
The man heath is talking about is named Jamie Vidler.
I never chose to hear what Jamie had to say, and I was burdened with what I had been told because I believed it.
Heath claims he and Jamie were sitting down for a drink together at the Caravan Park when he says Jamie made those comments about killing Simone.
Back in 2005, when heath says he heard the confession, he made a statement to police.
But then the first inquest came and went two years later.
He says without him even knowing it was on.
Heath contacted by anyone about the Simone Strobel case and then almost two decades later he got a summons for a second inquest.
It was like no more deaf ears, I'm going to be heard now. It was a sense of relief.
Finally, heath had the chance to put his story on the record publicly and perhaps relieve himself of the burden he felt he'd been carrying.
He'd never been to anything like an inquest before. He wasn't even sure he had the right clothes.
So we went and bought shoes the day before, pants and long sleeve shirt, no tie.
When heath arrived and walked into testify, he says he could feel the tension in the room right away.
The first thing I noticed was there was a discomfort between Simone's family and Tobias' group. There was a lot of steering across from each other.
Putting his story on the public record was something heath had wanted to do for a very long time.
So basically what they asked me and what I told them was how Jamie had told me that he killed her, the Nazi bitch.
He was very misogynistic and anti-women that he cried, which was what really confirmed for me that there was some substance to what he was saying.
Heath faced a lot of questions from the council assisting Strickland.
He was asked how much he'd had to drink. He said he imagines three or four cans of Bunderburg rum.
He was asked whether he believed what Jamie was saying. He said yes.
Then, before his evidence finished, heath felt a compulsion to do something that witnesses don't usually do.
I turned to Simone's family and said I'm really sorry that you had to go through this. I've stayed for 20 years to address you and say something to you.
I just want to express how sorry I am. This has happened to you and your family.
And I don't think anyone else had done that.
[Music]
Bayfarm of Phil Lenton was just as nervous about walking into the coroner's court that
wake in 2024.
Well, from the Blake from the country, it's just so scary, mate.
It's just frightening, you know what I mean?
It's just stress about getting on the plane, getting off the plane, getting to your room,
you know?
It was a stressful thing.
He'd also heard what he believed was a confession back in 2005, but hadn't even been asked
to make a statement by the police when the first inquest was held.
You heard from Phil in an earlier episode, talking about his former friend, Gus Parker,
who rocked up at his place, dragging a palm front between his legs.
This was in the days after Simone's body was found.
Phil says Gus had called the palm front, his dragon's tail.
He says he asked Gus if he'd killed Simone, and Gus replied, "Yeah."
Phil says he called crime stoppers back in 2005 to leave an anonymous tip, "I thought
I'll give it away, and surely they'll be on doing."
But he says he didn't hear back, so he rang crime stoppers again.
And this time he says he gave his name to the police.
Remember, another guy known as Tomo told police he'd heard Gus say police would find
what they're looking for, behind a piece of public art he called the devil's stones.
Then Simone was found, right where Gus said she would be.
Phil Lenton says police never asked him for a statement at the time, even though other
people had been calling the police about Gus.
Actually, it wasn't until 14 years later, when Phil was talking to another friend who
also knew Gus, they decided to contact police again.
That was in 2019, and this time, police took his statement.
This was why Phil had been called to testify at the inquest in 2024, but he wishes he'd
been asked for a statement back in 2005.
Even now, he regrets not pushing the police harder to take his information, or going down
to the station himself.
If I'd have gone down there earlier this might all be over and done with, you know, people
would have answers.
If I can help to work a bit towards the truth and give the family some peace of mind,
it's really, that's all, you know, all said and done about it.
Coroner Theresa O'Sullivan heard Phil Lenton's story about Gus Parker and Heath Tonstall's
story about Jamie Vidler.
There wasn't anyone at the inquest who'd heard the alleged confession from Alan and Thomas
Green.
They were the brothers who'd been drinking it nearby flats, then turned up on CCTV cameras
in the Lysmore City Centre about half past 12 on the night Simone disappeared.
A witness claimed Alan and Thomas told him they came across a German girl and killed her.
I tried to track down that witness, but I couldn't, and he didn't appear at the inquest
either.
I haven't been able to find out why.
Unlike at the first inquest, these alleged confession seemed to be taken seriously, at
least seriously enough that the people who said they'd witnessed them were asked to testify.
But what about the people who'd allegedly confessed themselves?
Would we get to hear from them?
Would Gus Parker, Jamie Vidler, Alan or Thomas Green face questioning in a courtroom?
The coroner's court could only ask them to testify at the inquest.
They weren't obligated to speak, and none did, except for one, Jamie Vidler.
Two people said they'd heard Jamie confess, Heath, who you heard from, and another man
who didn't testify at the inquest.
If they were telling the truth, Jamie said some shocking things back in 2005.
Now, two decades later, Jamie was about to face questioning about Simone in a courtroom
for the first time.
The council assisting Philip Strickland SC was the one asking him questions on behalf of
the coroner.
He asked Jamie about his life in Lismore at the time Simone disappeared.
About his relationships with women, his drinking, and his living situation at the caravan
park.
Jamie said he was living in a six person tent at the time.
He said he was confident he'd never met or spoken to Simone, or even seen her.
It wasn't until after Simone went missing, he said that he'd noticed anything about
the German group.
Jamie remembered two men coming to his tent to look for Simone the morning after she
disappeared.
He said he only found out later it was Tobias and his friend Jens.
Jamie told the court they came up to his tent and tried to open the zipper before he knew
they were there.
Strickland also asked Jamie about why he'd moved his tent after Simone went missing.
Two witnesses at the time thought it was suspicious that Jamie had moved his tent to a spot
with a closer view of the police search for Simone.
But Jamie said he was asked to move the tent by the manager of the caravan park, because
it had been there too long and it was killing the grass.
He said that was the main reason he moved it, but also because the German group scared
him, and he wanted to move away from them.
Jamie admitted that the morning after Simone disappeared, he'd approached Katrin Sulkfull
and propositioned her for sex, using a lured hand gesture.
She was waiting with the camper van, while the others were at the police station.
Jamie explained that he was probably drunk at the time.
Katrin has previously told police about this interaction.
When Strickland asked Jamie if he thought it was normal to approach a woman he didn't
know for sex, Jamie said it could possibly be considered normal.
And what he described as a man's world.
Jamie said he had a problem with alcohol, and he was severely depressed at the time.
He was questioned about his movements the night Simone disappeared, and being seen
on CCTV in the Lisbon Town Centre, after telling police he didn't leave his tent.
Jamie said he might have lied to police because he didn't want them to know he was breaching
his bail conditions by drinking.
When he went to the CBD, he said he was probably wandering around and letting off steam,
and he wasn't sure what time he got back to the caravan park.
The court also heard that three weeks before Simone's trouble was killed, Jamie's then
girlfriend reported him to police, saying he'd repeatedly punched her in the head and
chest as well as choking her by pressing his thumb in her jugular.
Jamie was convicted of assault-occasioning bodily harm.
He denied it at the time, but was found guilty and sentenced to 16 months in jail.
At the end quest, Jamie admitted to the coroner that he did in fact assault his former girlfriend,
but disputed some of the details.
He denied having anything to do with Simone Strobel's death.
He said Heath tonstles recollections about him confessing and calling her a Nazi bitch
weren't true.
Jamie suggested that maybe Heath was confused because Jamie had been talking about playing
a World War Two video game, which involved killing Germans.
It's baffling to me why this evidence from Jamie wasn't considered relevant the first
time around.
Regardless, after all these years, Jamie had now finally been questioned on the public
record in a coroner's court.
This coroner would have the chance to consider how important it was, but what she made of it
would be a matter of wait and see.
Perhaps one of the most important witnesses at Simone's second inquest wasn't a person
of interest in her murder, but the person who'd been trying to solve it all along.
Dave Mackie was the detective who'd been on the case the entire time.
One who charged Toby and arrested him at his home in Perth.
He took over as officer in charge of the investigation in 2012.
He'd actually been the one who'd initiated this inquest by applying for it through the courts.
Now, he was in the witness box, and he would be there for hours,
because that long-held police theory that Toby killed Simone was about to have its strengths and witnesses tested.
The council assisting Philip Strickland SC had already reminded those listening
that by this point, Toby had been arrested, charged, and released,
and the charges were found to have been laid without reasonable grounds.
Now that the criminal case against Toby had collapsed,
had Detective Mackie changed his view.
The answer was no.
The former boyfriend of the German backpacker Simone Strobel has again been accused of her murder.
The lead investigator made the allegation at a coronal inquest in Sydney.
Detective Mackie told the court he still believed it was probable that Toby killed Simone.
And not only that, he maintained the same theory that his police colleagues had presented at the first inquest in 2007.
The theory that Toby had killed Simone inside the caravan park
and that Toby's sister, Katrin, could have helped dispose of her body.
In fact, he went a step further, adding that he believed their friend Yen's Martin
had also helped dispose of Simone's body.
Back at the first inquest, Yen's had been deemed a credible and genuine witness,
but Detective Mackie disagreed. He believed Yen's and Katrin were both lying.
His view was, they didn't leave the park to search for Simone that night.
Instead, he said they were looking for a place to hide her body.
It wasn't just Philip Strickland, SC, asking the questions during the inquest.
Toby also had a lawyer representing him. That lawyer was allowed to ask the witnesses' questions.
And when Detective Mackie was on the stand, an interesting side plot began to emerge.
It was the fascinating story of all the tactics Mackie had tried over the years to gather evidence against Toby.
Under questioning, he revealed how he'd once set up listening devices
to spy on conversations between Toby and Katrin.
And he described an elaborate undercover operation he tried in 2020.
An operation Toby remembered well.
Oh, yeah, Sophie.
Toby told me about this remarkable operation when we spoke.
It was a morning, the Tuesday, I think it was.
And then, yeah, someone knocks on the door and I go open the front door.
And there's this lady in front of me.
She introduced herself and says her name is Sophie.
She's from Overest. Sydney works for the Department of Justice or something.
She knows about the Simone Strober case.
There will be a million dollar reward.
There have been new developments in the case.
She can't talk about it.
But she knows all about it.
And her brother is terminally ill.
Only has a couple of weeks or months to leave.
And that could do is the money.
Then Sophie makes a proposition.
If I let her know what happened that night,
then she could talk to her brother and he will take the fall
because she has young kids.
If Toby would tell her the details of how he killed Simone,
her brother would then use those details
that only the killer could know to convince police
that he was the murderer.
She said then she could take the million dollars in reward money
and confessing to her murder wouldn't matter for her brother
because he'd be gone.
And I go, why, why, why, how does that help me?
She said, I'm here to help you and all this.
And I said straight away to her that this wouldn't help me.
It wouldn't help Simone's family.
The real, the real perpetrator would be still running
around over east.
She left her number.
And then I remember her being super nervous.
And then she left.
Toby called Sam and they reported the strange interaction
to the police.
This was in October 2020.
At this point, Toby knew there was going to be a second inquest.
Later on the day Sophie had visited,
Toby says he found a note at his door.
And on those notes, as you were saying,
do you know the new DNA analysis?
Do you know what Jens is going to say?
Have you thought about my offer?
And then she just signed Sophie.
Sophie was an undercover police officer.
Police had sent her to see if Toby would confess.
They'd bug Toby's home in case he said something
incriminating about Sophie's visit.
But Toby hadn't confessed.
The whole thing had left police with no more evidence
than they started with.
This all happened in 2020.
Not long after, police asked Toby
for a fresh DNA sample, which he provided.
They sent that in for testing against the samples from the palm fronds.
When the results came back, there was no match to Toby on the palm fronds.
But as you know, Detective Mackie
went ahead and charged him with murder anyway.
Back at the inquest, Toby's lawyer wanted to know why.
He pushed Detective Mackie on this.
Was it true that nothing had changed in terms of evidence
before Toby was charged?
Detective Mackie agreed that it hadn't.
(Music)
Both the council assisting, Strickland
and Toby's barrister, scrutinised the whole police case
through their questions to Detective Mackie.
Dave Mackie stuck to his theory and pointed to Toby's lies
and the witnesses at the caravan park who saw him yelling
as evidence to support his theory that Toby killed Simone.
But under questioning, he agreed there was no forensic evidence
to place Toby at the crime scene.
No DNA evidence to implicate him.
Or any known history of violence between him and Simone.
Detective Mackie was also asked about the other persons of interest.
Jamie Viddler, Alan and Thomas Green
all told police the wrong information
about where they were or who they were with that night.
Proven wrong by CCTV.
But Detective Mackie said there could be an innocent explanation for that
that they could have been trying to tell the truth.
They could have just made mistakes.
To explain, he said Alan and Thomas Green were heavy drug users.
It may not have been the types to take notes of times or dates.
He said one of them, which was Thomas,
was confused about being in Byron Bay that night
when he was actually in Lismore.
As for the alleged confession from Gus Parker,
Detective Mackie said it could be suspicious
that he appeared to know where Simone was found.
But it could be a coincidence put down to mental health issues.
When it came to Jamie Viddler, Detective Mackie said outright
that he didn't think Jamie was deliberately lying
when he gave false information about that night.
But agreed it was a possibility.
The council assisting Strickland also questioned
Detective Mackie about his interpretation of lies.
This time about Toby.
And Detective Mackie had a different view about his lies.
He'd considered Toby's lies a very strong piece of evidence.
In fact, Dave Mackie agreed almost all of the police case against Toby
came down to the lies.
Through the course of the Inquest, Strickland raised several pieces of key evidence
that seemed to run counter to the police theory of what happened to Simone.
There were two separate witnesses who reported
seeing a woman matching Simone's description.
Outside of the caravan park between 11.50 pm and midnight.
One of those witnesses specifically described
seeing a woman wearing black and red hippy style clothes
near the roundabout between the caravan park and the botchy courts.
A description that matches what Simone was wearing.
There was a third sighting too. From a witness who said she saw a woman
matching Simone's description in the same area.
But she said this was earlier at about 11.20 pm.
Then, Strickland raised the matter of screams coming from outside the caravan park on the
night Simone was killed.
Incredibly, there were accounts from at least six people who reported hearing a woman screams
that night.
Almost all of them said the screams seemed to be coming from the direction of the sporting
precinct and botchy court where Simone's body was found.
The screams were described as "forceful" and "terrifying".
One person said it sounded as if someone was being killed.
Several people said one scream lasted only a few seconds before suddenly being cut off.
Three witnesses reported hearing a woman say, "Leave me alone."
Another said he heard a man saying, "What have you done?"
There had been witness accounts of a group of men drinking near the botchy courts around
the same time Simone was seen walking in that direction.
Strickland asked Detective Mackie if it was reasonable to accept the screams that people
heard were coming from that general area around the botchy courts.
Detective Mackie said yes.
This inquest was hearing a very different account to what emerged at the first inquest
all those years ago.
This time, the inquest was hearing about witnesses who saw Simone walking away from the caravan
park before midnight.
It was hearing that in the direction Simone was heading toward the botchy court, a group
of men were seen drinking and disturbing screams were heard by multiple people coming from
that area around the same time.
On top of that, the inquest heard a lot more about those alleged confessions and some
of them came from people who were known to drink in that same area.
It made me wonder.
I wasn't most of this evidence given air time at the first inquest in 2007.
Most of it existed then.
It was there.
But police made a call that those screams couldn't be attributed to Simone with any certainty.
And they also couldn't be sure the woman seen at the roundabout was Simone.
Police had decided that Simone was still in the park later than this, or went back to
the park after this.
Why?
Well, Detective Mackie talked about some witnesses at the park who saw things after midnight.
The first witness was a woman who lived at the caravan park who said she saw Simone with
Toby and the others between 12.30 and 1am.
So this is well after the roundabout sightings.
The woman who said that had been drinking all day but Detective Mackie believed her statement
was credible.
Then there were two other witnesses, a married couple who said they saw Toby leaning into
the camp of Van and speaking aggressively in German around 12.30am.
They described him as being irate, agitated and abusive, but they didn't actually see
Simone at all.
Toby has denied he was aggressive and says he was yelling because he was searching for
Simone.
Before the 2024 Inquest wrapped up, Simone's family had an opportunity to address the coroner's
court.
Speaking through tears, Christina Strobel told of the impact the loss of her sister had
had on the family.
She said her parents had become quote "mere shadows of themselves".
She said personally she had experienced the unthinkable that the worst possible thing
can become reality overnight.
After five days of hearings, the Inquest ended.
There was nothing to do now except wait.
The coroner wasn't likely to release her findings for months.
There were others in Germany waiting to find out what happened.
One of them was Toby's sister, Katrin Sookful.
"Okay, my name is Katie and I live in Germany and I stay at home now."
The coroner's Inquest didn't hear from Katrin Sookful.
She didn't have to appear and she didn't.
She's actually never corrected the lies she told.
The same lies as Tobias to the police in Australia or Germany.
The last time she spoke on the record to the police was just three months after Simone
was killed.
I wanted to find out more from her about the key police claims against her.
She was very reluctant, but eventually agreed to an interview over a video call.
Her English isn't great and my German is non-existent, so I did my best in the moment
and got her answers translated after.
I asked her what happened that night.
"She told me she did go and search for Simone with Yens and they were worried.
She said they searched two or three times, but at some point they stopped looking and
they just hoped she'd come back.
I asked her why she agreed to lie to police.
She told me she wished she could answer that question, but she'd been told by lawyers
that could expose her to legal risks.
She thought people would understand that she couldn't say any more.
Did you have anything to do with Simone's death?"
"No, I had nothing to do with Simone's death.
She did not kill Simone.
But the coroner at the first inquest had said Catrin may have been involved.
Like everyone else, she'd have to wait for the findings of the second inquest to see
if this coroner would see things differently.
Almost a year had passed when I pulled out my laptop one morning and logged in to a live
video of a courtroom in Sydney.
The time had finally come for the coroner to deliver her findings.
With my notebook ready to take everything down, I watched as the state coroner Theresa O'Sullivan
started to speak.
And I could tell as I listened that what she said was going to be hugely consequential
for everyone involved.
Because her findings were in stark contrast to the findings of the 2007 inquest.
Anna O'Sullivan found Simone was not killed inside the caravan park.
Rather, the coroner found she was killed in the area of the oval and botchy court sometime
between midnight and 5.30am.
Remember, the 2007 inquest had determined Simone had most likely been killed by suffocation
in the vicinity of the caravan park.
Starting with her findings, the new coroner referred to something Strickland had said that
the area Simone was found in was frequented by quote "unsavory locals" and that there
was no doubt on the night of Simone's disappearance some men, including some with serious criminal
backgrounds, were lurking nearby.
The coroner accepted the evidence of the witnesses who placed Simone at the roundabout outside
the park and said there was no direct evidence she returned to the campsite that night.
Coroner O'Sullivan also overturned the previous finding that Simone wasn't the victim of a
sexual assault.
She pointed out that the forensic tests had been inconclusive.
She found that on the balance of probabilities there was a sexual motive to her murder, partly
because her body was found naked.
And she said she was unable to find, as the coroner had in 2007, that Simone's cause
of death was most likely suffocation or asphyxia.
She felt there wasn't the evidence to support that conclusion.
Coroner O'Sullivan said instead that a cause of death couldn't be determined.
The finding completely undermined the whole police theory of what happened to Simone that
she was killed in the van in the caravan park by Toby, who was then helped by either
Catrin or Yens or both, to move her body through a fence into the botchy court across
the road.
The coroner went further with these findings.
In stark contrast to the police theory of what happened, she found the involvement of
Catrin Sookful and Yen's Martin to be quote, "unlikely."
She added that it would be exceedingly difficult for a person to find the hole in the
botchi court fence in the dark if they weren't aware of it beforehand.
And what about Toby?
He's legal team wanted the coroner to find it very unlikely he was involved.
But coroner O'Sullivan said the evidence didn't allow this.
Instead, she found it was unlikely that Toby could have acted alone in killing Simone
and disposing of her body.
Given the coroner's findings on Catrin and Yen's as unlikely participants, that suggests
either Toby had helped from a local or it's also unlikely that Toby was involved.
It all amounted to a remarkable rejection of the central police theory on how Simone died.
As for Toby's lies, the coroner stated it remained controversial what to make of them.
The council assisting Strickland had described them as reprehensible, persistent and numerous.
In the end, coroner O'Sullivan dedicated part of her findings to a discussion about the
topic of lies and how they should be interpreted.
She said lies should be interpreted with quote, "considerable care."
She said that's because people don't always act rationally and they may have a reason
for lying other than trying to conceal their guilt, such as panic or escaping blame for
something they didn't do.
Ultimately, she wasn't satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Toby's lies could
be taken as consciousness of guilt.
The coroner recommended Simone's case be moved to a different police department.
She said it should now be handed over to the New South Wales police unsolved homicide
unit.
Most people know it as the cold case unit.
After all those years trying to find answers for Simone's family, Detective Dave Mackie
would no longer be working on the case.
The coroner didn't comment on the adequacy of the police investigation, saying it wasn't
a matter for her inquest.
She noted a comment from Strickland that arguably police could have focused more on other persons
of interest.
The coroner said that although Heath and Phil both seemed earnest and genuine in their stories
about the alleged confessions, it was implausible that both Jamie Viddler and Gus Parker could
have both been involved because there was no evidence they knew each other.
The coroner also said the reports about the Green Brothers seemed to be largely based
on second-hand reports and rumours.
Like Toby, none had been linked forensically to the crime scene and all had been excluded
from the palm-front samples, aside from Gus Parker who hadn't been tested against that
sample.
After all she made an open finding that Simone was killed by a person or persons unknown.
For Toby Moran, the new coroner's findings were a massive relief.
The evidence was always there, there was always a sighting of Simone outside of the caravan
park.
All the screams have been heard on the other side.
I had to live with this, Simone's family is still living with, everyone is still living
with this nightmare and you wonder why, back in 2007, why was that inquest not held with
the same thoroughness?
This inquest was held.
The only way I kept my sanity through all these years was knowing that I'm innocent.
This is just a web of this never-ending trauma who just keeps, I don't know, spinning like
a hamster in a wheel, and looking at all these evidence, I just can't believe we actually
still sitting here after 20 years, that could have been solved by earlier and I hope it still
can be solved.
The new findings might have helped move some of the suspicion away from Toby, but the
inquest brought no relief for the Strobel family.
The family of a German backpacker who was killed in Lisbon or in northern New South Wales
in 2005 say they're disappointed by the findings of a second coronal inquest into her death.
The family said they felt no closer to knowing how Ms Strobel died 20 years after her death.
After the findings came out, the Strobel family released a statement saying they'd been let
down by the findings of the second coronal inquest.
They'd wanted the second inquest to happen, but after the hearings, they decided the new
coroner should stick with some of the key findings from 2007.
They felt the original finding on Toby was correct, that there was a very strong suspicion
that Toby Moran was involved in Simone's death.
The Strobels also said the police in Australia and Germany had done a very thorough and
competent job, and they continued to hope that one day they would learn the truth about
what happened to Simone.
It's important to stress that Simone Strobel's parents, Gabi and Gustav still do not accept
that Toby is telling the truth.
Until recently, all I knew about the Strobel family's views was what I'd found in public
statements they'd made over the years.
I'd contacted them a few times when I first started working on this story, and they decided
not to participate.
Then, not long before we were due to publish this podcast, I sent them one last email to
let them know when the podcast was coming out, and what the story was going to cover.
I also needed to send them a couple of comments made by Toby and Katrin.
As a journalist, it's part of my process to let people know if someone else has made
a claim about them or told a different version of the same story.
In this case, I needed to let Gabi and Gustav know about two things.
Contrary to what the Strobels had said publicly, Toby claimed he'd already told the family
the truth about what happened that night, so I wanted to put that to them.
Also, there seemed to be differing versions of that conversation between Toby's sister,
Katrin, and the Strobel family.
Remember, Simone's dad said Katrin told him she wouldn't talk about that night even
if she was being tortured, but Katrin remembered that conversation differently, so I needed
to put that to them as well.
I wrote them a letter.
Simone's parents replied with a statement, which they asked that I only include in full.
I said I would respect that request, and I'll read that statement to you in full now.
Mr. Baker's letter sets out Tobias Moran and Katrin Sookfals' versions of certain important
matters.
We deny these accounts are truthful.
Tobias Moran has admitted that he and his sister lied about matters relating to Simone's
disappearance and murder, because the police were not taking her disappearance seriously
enough.
We have never found that explanation logical or convincing, as he told these lies on his
first encounter with police, before anyone could have known a crime had occurred.
The coroner and council assisting described Tobias' lies as persistent, numerous and reprehensible.
If Tobias Moran lied because police were not taking him seriously, what possible explanation
due to Tobias and Katrin have for their false statements being put to us now by Mr. Baker,
more than 20 years after Simone's murder.
The accounts given by Tobias and Katrin to us about what happened the night Simone was
murdered, or about the day's proceeding, were untrue.
They claimed there had been no arguments and all was good within the traveling group.
When we asked on several occasions if there had been any fights, Tobias said there were
none.
We learned almost two and a half years later they were lying to us about this.
Later, when I asked why, Tobias said he'd been forced to lie because the police were
not taking him seriously, he did not explain why he lied to us.
Simone.
murder, he and his family nurtured a close relationship between our families, which had
not previously existed, while all the time maintaining their lies.
On reflection, we feel we were being manipulated.
Our relationship with Tobias and the entire Sookful family ended at the Sookful home in 2009,
when my husband and my brother asked Katrin to tell us what happened the night Samon died.
She said, "You can torture me, but I will never talk about that night."
She then ran from the room and drove off in her car.
Her attempt to rewrite the word she used that day is untruthful.
Katrin Sookful has not only refused to answer our questions, but to our knowledge, she
has never corrected the false and misleading statement she gave to police concerning events
surrounding Samon's murder.
To this day, we do not know from Tobias, his sister, and Yens Martin what happened the
night our daughter was murdered.
We can only rely on accounts they gave to the police, which are so full of lies and inconsistencies,
we can place no trust in them.
We are, and have always been, entirely at the mercy of what they choose to tell us.
But there has been a consistent pattern of avoidance spanning more than 20 years, evident
even before the three were made suspects.
For example, the three attended Samon's funeral, but refused to attend her wake.
As a courtesy, the siblings were walked back to their car by a member of our family as
they did not want to be part of the reception.
And Martin also disappeared without ever introducing himself to us.
This is why we would like them to come to our door and apologise and offer us a full
account.
Nothing would give us greater peace than receiving a truthful and consistent account of our daughter's
final days and the night of her death.
The letter from Samon's parents gave me more insight into how they see the case and their
feelings about the lies told by Toby, Catherine, and Yens.
I needed to ask the three of them about some of the things Samon's parents raised in their
letter and tell them about Gabi and Gustav's request they visit, apologise, and provide
a full account of that night in 2005.
I put their concerns to Yens through his lawyer in Germany, but he didn't respond before
my deadline.
When I asked Toby and Catherine, they each sent through written responses.
I'll tell you what Toby said first.
When it came to Samon's funeral, he said he didn't attend the wake because he went home
and collapsed.
He said he was in a "ball of despair" because he'd lost the love of his life and he said
there was nothing anyone could say to change that.
And then he sent me another follow-up response, but this time there was something different
about it.
This letter wasn't addressed to me.
It was sent to me to read on this podcast, but it's a letter to Samon's parents.
It says, "Gabi and Gustal, I am sorry, I've been sorry for 21 years, nothing I write
will give Samon back to you and I will not pretend it can.
I did not kill her.
I loved her.
Those two things have always been true, even when I handled the days after her disappearance
badly.
I know you want a final conversation about that night.
I understand why.
I cannot give you a confession that is not true.
I will not do that in order to give you peace.
I handled that first day badly, Katrin and I had a fight and Samon got caught up in it.
When I first reported her missing, I told police about the argument.
Later, in my first recorded interview, I denied the argument and understated the drinking.
The police were already treating it as a walkoff after drinking and a fight and I was afraid
they would not search for her, lying was wrong.
When they put the lies to me, I flew back straight away from South Africa and admitted them.
In December 2008, I wrote to you, Garby, and said I had been afraid you would blame
me for her leaving or for her death.
I am sorry those lies hurt you and damaged your trust.
Being I lied is not the same as admitting I killed her.
I did the first.
I cannot do the second.
If an account of what I remember would ever help, a 91 page document already exists and
has been with police for years, together with the police notes taken on the day she was
first reported missing.
Our families were not strangers, in his 2005 statement, Alexander said that I was at your
house almost every weekend for three years that you liked me and that you were friendly
with my parents.
After Simone died, my parents reached out because they were broken too.
That was not a plan to hide a crime.
I am sad the relationship later fell apart.
I sold our house to pay for independent lawyers and experts for the fresh inquest.
My family came to Sydney.
The fresh inquest examined witness accounts that had not previously been considered and
applied advances in DNA technology that were not available in 2007.
Unmatched forensic material remains.
A review by the Unsolved Homicide Unit, including further testing of that material, is the
path to answers about what happened to Simone.
I support that.
I hope you will too.
I cannot come to your door with a confession I cannot truthfully make.
I do not know what happened to Simone after she walked away.
I am sorry for your loss.
I always will be.
That's Toby's response to Gabi and Gustav's concerns.
Now I'll read you Catrin's response, which is shorter.
She wrote, "I am sorry too.
Simone was my dear friend.
I did not kill her.
I did not help hide her.
I have not kept giving interviews because my lawyer advised me not to.
I cannot tell you more about that night than I have already told you.
I do not know what happened to Simone after she left us.
I am sorry she is gone.
I think of her every day.
It feels strange to be reading these statements that feel like messages between two families.
As a journalist, I've had to put certain things to the Strobel and Moran families, based
on what they've said about each other.
They have to have an opportunity to respond where their story is differ.
It's part of my job to do that.
But I've ended up feeling almost like a messenger between the two families.
All I can hope is that there's some breakthrough in the investigation that can find the truth
once and for all.
And I do believe there's still hope.
It's been 21 years since Simone's death.
But even so many years later, the coroner suggested some ways forward in the investigation.
She brought up something that seems to have the potential to hold a real forensic clue.
Remember when Simone's body was found?
She was naked.
None of her clothes were ever found.
Except for one thing, Simone's black top.
The black top was found by a member of the public at about 5.30 in the morning after Simone
disappeared.
It was near that roundabout where witnesses said they saw Simone between the caravan park
and the botchy courts.
It was the top she'd been wearing that night before she walked away.
In 2019, German police found a piece of evidence on the top that stands out to me as the biggest
potential breakthrough of all the evidence reviewed by the coroner, a DNA profile from
an unknown male.
It's not Toby Jens or any of the alleged confesses who were in the area that night.
They even tested the person who. found the top and it's not theirs either.
The unknown DNA profile is one of the things that the coroner has asked the cold case unit
to focus on when it reviews the case. Could that DNA belong to Simone's killer?
These days police can use some forensic genealogy databases to test DNA profiles and try to
link them to family groups. Maybe that could help find out whose DNA is on the black
top.
I set out on this story hoping to find out why police have failed to bring anyone to justice
after 20 years. What you've heard is, I believe, a troubling case study into how a police
investigation, despite all the hard work and best intentions, can fail to find answers.
I'm disappointed that New South Wales police decided not to answer any of my questions.
They said in a statement, "The matter is currently being assessed by the unsolved homicide
unit and a forensic review is being conducted in line with the coroner's recommendations.
No further information is available at this time."
I feel for the police officers who put so much time into trying to solve Simone's murder,
finding the truth when so many persons of interest lie to you can't be easy.
But I believe the public deserves an explanation about why such different information was presented
at two coronal inquests, 17 years apart, and how they came to such vastly different conclusions.
I believe the public deserves an explanation about the decision to charge Toby with murder
without a reasonable cause. Why was the public told? All of that had been approved by the
New South Wales director of public prosecutions. When it seems, it wasn't even run past them
before the charges were laid. In a case stocked with so many lies and lingering uncertainty,
one thing is for sure, whoever killed Simone is most likely still out there.
And I'm betting so too, our others who know more about the killer or killers and what
happened on that night. Simone's life should not have ended
in Lisbon. People in that community felt her lost deeply.
You heard from Jenny Dowell at the start of this series. She's the former mayor who stayed
in touch with Simone's family over the years. She passed away not long after I spoke
to her. I want to end the story with a few words from Jenny, who said Simone's memory
in Lisbon will never fade. We won't forget her. It happens that during
my time as mayor we introduced the heart symbol as Lisbon come to the heart and the heart
of the region. And red hearts were an important part. She loved red hearts.
Whatever happens, we need the truth. And so, you know, police need to do a thorough and
good job as they can. 20 and a half years is too long for a family to wait. They shouldn't
have to wait forever. So do it right, do it thoroughly, get answers for the family and
get answers for our community. And if, by some chance, the murderer is one of ours,
we will go through great shame and great guilt, but we will know the truth. I go back to
the fact that we want answers for the family. So that's the primary concern. And for Simone
herself, you know, for her to rest in peace and remember her for the beautiful things in
her life, rather than the mystery of her death. For now, this is the last full episode
of Lies in Lisbon. If you saw something the night Simone died, or you've heard something
first hand that could help, give crime stoppers a call on 1-800-triple-3-triple-zero.
You can get in touch with us at
[email protected].
If you're looking for your next true crime podcast, there are plenty of award winning previous
seasons of unravel ready for you to listen to right now. Make sure you follow Unravel
to be the first to hear about our next season. And you can dip into the popular podcast made
by our colleagues at the ABC called The Case Of. It takes you step by step through some
of the biggest trials in Australia as they happen. Lies in Lisbon is hosted and reported
by me, Richard Baker. Our producer and fact checker is Rommie Schur. Supervising producer
is Alicia Bridges. A huge thank you to the ABC staff in Lisbon, especially Joanne Schubridge
and Kath Adams. Kathas followed this case since the start. For this project, she's done
additional reporting, taken photographs and helped in so many other ways. Also thanks
to Chiara Holsoiser for assisting with translation. Theme composition and additional music by Martin
Peralta and Ashley Cadal. Sound design by Tim Simons. Our executive producers are Tim Roxbra
and Eric George. And the head of audio on demand is Jessica Radburn.
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