I believe he fell into the sea.
T-dawg420 posted pictures of the track junction where
Theo paused for a while, apparently referring to the GPS
on his phone for a while, to figure out which track to follow.
Australia - Australia - Theo Hayez, 18, Belgian backpacker, Byron Bay, 31 May 2019 #4
Picture 2 is apparently the track that leads to Tallow
Beach Rd (paved).
T-dawg420 makes the point the Road
is quite close, as if Theo could not have missed seeing it.
It appears to be about 20 or so metres away, but you
have to imagine being in the same spot on an inky dark
night - you just can't see clearly anything past 2 to 3
metres from you. For that direction in the dark of night,
it would just seem to be a wide area that closes in fairly
quickly - not too different from picture 4, which is the
track that Theo elected to follow, that leads down to the
beach.
At Cosy Corner at Tallow Beach, Theo's GPS phone
location spots have him moving up into the slope foilage
and (I understand) sending messages to his friend and
sister-in-law. I theorized previously if someoneelse could
have sent those messages, but no, the message use of
"very colloquial" terms does not support that viewpoint
(and I did further checking and that App did not support
the 'predictive text' function that I previously theorized
about). Per
Iphi;
Australia - Australia - Theo Hayez, 18, Belgian backpacker, Byron Bay, 31 May 2019 #4
IMO, Theo would not have sent those messages and
viewed the video he did if someone were standing over
him with a cudgel or a knife, ergo, he was not under
coercion. He was slightly up the slope in a small space
in the foilage, most likely to get out of the wind
(probably light wind, but cold).
Eloise posted back in Dec 18, 2021 about the weather
conditions, towards midnight May 31 and morning June 1;
Weather in June 2019 in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
The GPS spots have been posted previously;
Australia - Australia - Theo Hayez, 18, Belgian backpacker, Byron Bay, 31 May 2019 #4
but that last GPS spot would be better viewed in its
equivalent satellite view instead (the GPS spots are only
accurate to about within 3 metres anyway);
28°38'32.0"S 153°38'05.6"E · Cosy Corner Trail, Byron Bay NSW 2481, Australia
I'd note that that last GPS spot isn't necessarily 'in the
water'. The actual line where the high tide comes up to
is not certain, there's an area where the beach sand
would be wet and then merely damp, above where the
seawater mostly reaches to (due to things like the extra
reach of an occasional long onrushing wave and droplets
off the top of the waves).
IMO, Theo turned off the GPS function because he
wanted to conserve battery power because he intended
to and he did climb up the headland at the northeast
end of Tallow beach - probably holding his phone and
using the light from it to see the way up that headland.
Unfortunately, whilst going up, he lost his footing or his
grip and fell down onto the rocks at the base, killing or
badly injuring himself. The waves crashing at the base
of that area (after a while?) pulled him down and out
into the sea and that was that.
IMO, when he fell, his phone went flying, falling either
just in at the waters edge, or just above there in the
wet zone of sand or in the damp zone of sand.
We know the tide times for Byron Bay Beach (very close
around the headland from where he was at Tallow Beach);
Main Beach (Byron Bay) Tide Times, NSW - WillyWeather
We have to be a bit careful here, however. We know
the wind direction (generally towards the east), the
tides, the temperatures - what we don't know is the
sea state, and a heavier crashing sea onto the beach
(and onto the rocks at the base of where IMO he climbed)
could concieveably cause more seawater to be thrown
into the air & onto the sand during very early morning
(lower tide), than perhaps might be thrown into the air
& onto the sand during the around 6 A.M. higher tide
but gentler sea state. (Also, the wind was blowing a bit
harder {generally eastwards} by around 6 A.M. - more
evaporation, more spray being prevented being thrown
up onto the sand?).
IMO, regardless, for whatever reason, his phone was in
wet enough sand that signals from it weren't detected
until that 6:17AM detection, presumably when the sand
it was in dryed out a bit. Thereafter the phone sat
there in the sand until, later that day, someone, probably
a kid, came walking towards that headland intending to
climb up it, saw the phone probably partially buried in
the wet/damp sand and picked it up. (Probably didn't
check the phone for operation, in fear that any other
beachgoers then on the beach that 'might' have dropped
it might see it and claim it back from him.)
So,
IMO, the phone got put in that persons pocket,
carried up the headland and then on top of the
headland, was looked over and checked to see if it
worked. After being in wet sand, possibly having the
screen cracked (if it bounched off rocks as it came out
of Theo's hand) and possibly not working in all respects
(say seawater started to get in via buttons, etc,) the
person decided not to keep it, and threw it away -
probably as a kid would, throwing it off the top of the
headland down onto the rocks and hence into sea.
