Inquest lawyer says police should have done more in Simone Strobel investigation

NSW Police failed to adequately investigate multiple persons of interest in the unsolved 2005 killing of German tourist Simone Strobel, according to the senior barrister who acted as counsel assisting at the most recent coronial inquest into her death. 

For almost 20 years, Tobias Moran, formerly Tobias Suckfuell, was the main suspect for police in the killing of Ms Strobel, who was 25 years old when she was found dead in the NSW town of Lismore. 

But a 2024 coronial inquest found key aspects of the police theory about Mr Moran's previously alleged involvement were unlikely.

Philip Strickland SC, who was appointed to assist the coroner at the 2024 inquest into Ms Strobel's death, said police were right to thoroughly investigate Ms Strobel's boyfriend, Mr Moran.

But Mr Strickland said they should have done more to investigate other persons of interest in the case, which included men who were in the area on the night of the killing, and were reported by members of the public to have confessed.

"There's no doubt the police put in a very big effort, and they genuinely wanted to find who killed Simone Strobel, and I think they did a lot of good work," he said.

"However, I do think that there wasn't adequate attention given to other suspects.

"In particular, there was inadequate attention given to try to match hair samples or other forensic evidence with some of the suspects.

" I'm not saying none of it was done, but it wasn't done in the systematic and thorough way it probably should have been done." 

Mr Strickland said his views on the case were his own and he was not speaking on behalf of the NSW state coroner, Teresa O'Sullivan, who oversaw the 2024 inquest.

He said it was his opinion that police should have promptly obtained DNA samples from other persons of interest to compare with forensic evidence from the crime scene.

One of the persons of interest, a man who allegedly said he killed Ms Strobel and had a violent criminal record, was not DNA tested for seven years after the crime.

Another, who had also allegedly confessed to killing Ms Strobel, was not asked to provide a DNA sample until 2024.

" There were other people who were unsavoury characters who had criminal records, serious criminal records for … violence who were very close to where … her body was found," Mr Strickland said.

"And those people, although there was some investigation into their whereabouts, I don't think it was an adequate investigation at the time."

Neither Mr Moran nor any of the persons of interest named at the most recent coronial inquest have been linked forensically to the crime scene.

In an interview with ABC podcast Unravel: Lies in Lismore, Mr Moran accused NSW Police of getting "tunnel vision" and focusing too heavily on him.

In 2007, a NSW coroner had found there was a "very strong suspicion" that Mr Moran, who went by the surname of Suckfuell at the time, was involved in Ms Strobel's death.

In 2022, NSW Police charged Mr Moran with murder and intending to pervert the course of justice, but the charges were dropped the following year. A local court found the charges had been laid without reasonable cause.

The second coronial inquest in 2024 overturned the findings from 2007.

Ms Strobel's family disagreed with many of the 2024 inquest findings, saying in their submission to the court that the "very strong suspicion" from the original finding about Mr Moran should remain.

Mr Strickland said he thought there was "some validity" in Mr Moran's claims that the police did not fully explore all the suspects and people who could have come into contact with Ms Strobel that night.

"One way of describing that failure is to describe it as tunnel vision, so I think there is some validity in that," he said.

Mr Strickland said he thought the investigation was distorted by lies that Mr Moran told the police after Ms Strobel's disappearance.

Mr Moran told police he had not argued with her the night she went missing, downplayed how much they had to drink, and denied he had smoked marijuana when he had.

He now says he only told the lies because he thought police were not searching urgently enough.

Mr Moran thought they were treating the disappearance like she had walked off after an argument and would turn up safe.

"I think the lies he gave, which were, to put it mildly, extremely unwise of him, distorted the investigation," Mr Strickland said.

"That's my opinion … the police, in my view, were quite right to regard him as a suspect, and they were quite right to investigate him very thoroughly.

"But the issue is whether they did that to the exclusion, or without properly focusing on other suspects."

Asked to respond to Mr Strickland's concerns, NSW Police referred the ABC to an earlier statement provided in response to questions.

"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," it said.

The forensic exhibits include an unknown male DNA profile found on a black top, which was the only item of Ms Strobel's clothing that was recovered.

They also include yellow and blue fibres, believed to be from items of clothing, found on a fence near where Ms Strobel's body was found.

Mr Strickland urged anyone with information about Ms Strobel's death to contact police so Ms Strobel's family could get the answers they deserved.

Lies in Lismore, the latest season of the ABC's true crime podcast Unravel, is out now. Find Unravel on ABC listen or wherever you get your podcasts.