An eerie twist in the case of missing backpacker, Theo Hayez is revealed in phone data which shows he met up with a mystery local.
September 7, 2021 - 6:28P
Eerie twists in the case of missing backpacker, Theo Hayez, reveal the 18-year-old met up with a mystery local who knew Byron Bay?s dark places and may have lured him to his death.
Startling evidence claims the 18-year-old deliberately went to a remote haunt in the international tourist resort town with the person, but then his phone was taken from him.
The clues also suggest he may have met with foul play at the hand of one or more people connected with the drug trade in the notorious Northern NSW town of Nimbin.
The new turns in the Theo Hayez case were aired on the Channel 9 program Under Investigation on Monday, Searching for Theo.
Special investigator Ken Gamble told Nine there was a suggestion Theo?s belongings were taken from Tallow Beach and dumped in an abandoned house in Nimbin, 70km away.
When they searched the house they found belongings, not Theo?s, but those of another missing Byron Bay person Thea Liddle.
Ms Liddle?s remains were found during a search in July last year.
The abandoned Nimbin house where private investigators went looking for the belongings of missing backpacker Theo Hayez; and found those of Thea Liddle.
The data examined by Nine comes from detailed analysis of Google tracking on Theo?s mobile, which charts the young man?s every step despite the fact his phone was never found.
The Belgian teenager vanished without a trace three years ago after being kicked out of a bar in the celebrity tourist town and wandering off into the night.
NSW Police believed he was alone and lost, but the Google tracking suggests the teen met up with someone and was lured into dense bush.
Deep analysis of his mobile phone data shows him taking an ?erratic route? towards Byron?s Tallow Beach in the early hours of the morning after the night he vanished.
The tracking shows Theo making a sudden turn down an almost impenetrable bush track on one of the coldest nights in Byron that year.
Mr Gamble said Theo took the turn ?it?s quite obvious because someone knew a short cut to the beach?.
Fellow investigator Nigel Phair said it ?has to be a local to know ? the route?.
Just hours earlier, Theo had been drinking in a Byron Bay bar on a short break after finishing a six-month backpacking holiday across Australia.
He?d spent time staying with his uncle and family in Victoria and his cousins in southeast Queensland before stopping off for several days in the famous holiday town.
Described by his family as ?level-headed? and ?cautious? Theo was not known as a big drinker or drug taker.
But on the night of May 31, 2019, he accompanied fellow Belgian backpacker Antoine to a drinking hotspot called Cheeky Monkeys.
One of the bar?s doormen threw out Theo because he appeared intoxicated.
It was a ?sliding doors? moment for Theo who wandered into the night, alone, never to be seen again.
Shock new evidence has emerged about the possible fate of missing backpacker Theo Hayez, 18 (above, on his Australian travels) who vanished in 2019.
Missing Belgium backpacker Theo Hayez?s father Laurent Hayez (right) and uncle Jean-Phillippe Pector feature on the Under Investigation look at his disappearance.
CCTV of Theo out on the street shows him looking at his phone. Checks of his data showed he looked up the hostel he was staying at, the Wake Up, but was headed in the wrong direction.
Although police say he was lost, Ken Gamble and Nigel Phair believe he wanted to continue his night out and met up with someone.
Every search Theo made on his phone that night was picked up by mobile phone towers and that raw data has been analysed by Ken Gamble and Nigel Phair.
Ken Gamble said they knew ?when he walked and we know when he stopped?.
Theo?s movements after he left Cheeky Monkeys are on a path in the opposite direction from the Wake Up Hostel.
He stopped at a recreation ground for seven minutes, Mr Gamble said, he met up with someone, who then leads him away towards the bush path to Tallow Beach.
Theo then moves away from beach into bushland and into a small clearing, where his GPS is switched off.
Nigel Phair believes he has gone into his settings and turned off GPS, but the phone still tracks him.
And even when his activity on the phone stops, 12 hours later the phone itself is on the move along paths near the Byron Bay lighthouse.
It finally runs out of power around 1pm in the afternoon.
A tearful Jean-Phillippe Pector, Theo?s uncle and godfather tells the program the emotional toll the mystery of Theo?s disappearance ? and believed death ? has taken on the Sayez family.
Cap similar to missing backpacker Theo Hayez?s favourite headgear found at Cape Byron on July 7, five weeks after he vanished. Picture: Jane Hanson.
Search Dogs Sydney group comb the dunes of Tallow Beach, Byron Bay, Theo Hayez?s last known location before he vanished off the radar. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian
In early June 2019, Theo?s family flew in to Byron and his father Laurent issued a desperate emotional plea.
Locals responded and massive searches for Theo discovered just his favourite baseball cap lying near a track leading to Byron?s famous Tallow Beach.
Police believed he?d attempted to scale steep cliffs and may have fallen to his death in raging surf.
Hayez?s disappearance galvanised the townsfolk of Byron Bay into action as his distraught family arrived to search for the missing teen.
But the case also raised the spectre of the tourist paradise?s seedy underbelly of drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and homelessness.
All these factors were considered to have possibly contributed to Theo?s demise.
The new digital evidence from his mobile phone records sheds incredible new light on the missing backpacker?s final moments.
Under Investigation?s Liz Hayes has pieced together a jigsaw of Theo?s last night using a ?ghost? trail of digital information.
With geospatial positioning pinpointing his last known locations, a chart of every step Theo took until he stopped using his phone has been mapped.
The Nine program claims to have unearthed new evidence to be presented at the Coroner?s inquest which starts in November.
The inquest will also investigate the death of Thea Liddle, which Gamble and Phair say must be linked to Theo?s death.
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