Australia Australia - Theo Hayez, 18, Belgian backpacker, Byron Bay, 31 May 2019 #4

[ChatteringBirds]

Hopefully it's a known missing person who just doesn't have DNA in the database and can eventually be identified rather than an unknown (drowning (?)) victim.

 

[HinterlandObserver]

Was there any update on the bone?

Nothing official stating who it is that I have heard
Pretty low of news outlets using Theo’s pic on the story when it was released.

 

[butterstick]

Are there still occasional foot searches?

It's a huge area. After we lost his GPS location maybe he went in another unexpected direction?

 

[HinterlandObserver]

No no official searches at all.
I definitely want to check more locations on foot, I began just before Covid and rewalked his known path, but where Needs to be searched is not super safe terrain to be doing it alone.
I’d be happy to start a group to do some more coordinated searches?

 

[Martinie]

No no official searches at all.
I definitely want to check more locations on foot, I began just before Covid and rewalked his known path, but where Needs to be searched is not super safe terrain to be doing it alone.
I’d be happy to start a group to do some more coordinated searches?

If I still lived in the Northern rivers area, I'd help, but unfortunately I moved away from there. I'm hoping you can get a good search team together and find something important!

 

[buyerninety]

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.

 

[butterstick]

OK so if he fell in the ocean, at what point is that possible?

Any photos of a location not far from he beach where if you fell from a slope you'd land directly into the sea?

 

[HinterlandObserver]

OK so if he fell in the ocean, at what point is that possible?

Any photos of a location not far from he beach where if you fell from a slope you'd land directly into the sea?

It is possible to get up and down where the signs are saying not to climb up the headland are but if you fell there you just couldn’t get washed away IMOO.

 

[buyerninety]

butterstick , yes, in the google maps link in the previous post, is shown a dropped pin (last GPS phone spot), the specific place he may have climbed up is either directly due east or northeast of that pin - I wouldn't call it a cliff but it is fairly dangerous steepness wise. In our current time, is also shown google maps pictures of a couple getting married on Tallow Beach, in the background are horizontal views of that headland area. (Rocks about base of that headland).
(Other people hold the view he may have tried to walk horizontally around that headland on the rocks, but thst seems too unlikely to me,)

 

[HinterlandObserver]

The blue was where GPS recorded his route, pink is rocks (by the way the waves reach the vegetation on king tides but that’s not often), green line is only possible way to get up, yellow squiggles is impossible to climb.
It’s too difficult to get near where you could fall into the water IMOO.

 

[butterstick]

Thank you HinterlandObserver and buyerninety / everyone

Fair to say nobody can rule out a fall into the ocean. But looking at the landscape, he'd have to push himself into some even weirder and harsher terrain? After 5 minutes surely he'd turn back? (although he never turned back when he found himself in the trees earlier, so who knows)

And to actually fall into the ocean might be quite a feat given the path outlined above is more slopes than cliffs?

 

[HinterlandObserver]

Thank you HinterlandObserver and buyerninety / everyone

Fair to say nobody can rule out a fall into the ocean. But looking at the landscape, he'd have to push himself into some even weirder and harsher terrain? After 5 minutes surely he'd turn back? (although he never turned back when he found himself in the trees earlier, so who knows)

And to actually fall into the ocean might be quite a feat given the path outlined above is more slopes than cliffs?

Good to theorise on it more, it’s been a while. I’d say it’s possible to fall into some weird awkward place on the land more than the ocean just due to the terrain.
And if he was looking to scale up to a walkway above, there’s so many dangerous sections through the scrub there between beach and lighthouse path.
It didn’t seem like he was inebriated so logically he may have stayed away from the rocky ocean side and thought he maybe able to make it back to the road that way?

 

[buyerninety]

I acknowledge it's difficult to judge if he could have
fallen onto the rocks, such that 'The waves crashing
at the base of that area (after a while?) pulled him
down and out into the sea' - both the current 2023
google overhead view & HinterlandObserver's picture
seem to show the area at a low tide time (and by the
lack of foaming to the right of the pink circled area,
it appears that picture shows a calm sea state).
The tide link I cited previously gives a findable nearby
low tide for Saturday, 1st June 2019 as 12:41 A.M. &
the following high tide time after that as 06:38 A.M..
IMO, it's possible he fell (unconscious?/dead?) and lay
about the rocks for hours, until he was eventually
pushed down into the sea by one or some combination
of the rising tide, a heavy crashing sea state or an
especially large crashing wave - in the approximate
6 hour period up to higher tide at 06:38 A.M., I have
no difficulty believing there would be at least several
occaisional unusually large waves occuring within such
a time period.

 

[Martinie]

View attachment 435709
The blue was where GPS recorded his route, pink is rocks (by the way the waves reach the vegetation on king tides but that’s not often), green line is only possible way to get up, yellow squiggles is impossible to climb.
It’s too difficult to get near where you could fall into the water IMOO.

All that vegetation where the blue line is needs to be thoroughly searched. I wish I still loved in the region to help

 

[HinterlandObserver]

This is another view, it would be good to do an experiment to see if hypothetically someone did slip and fall in that location if they could be swept out or if they would be caught in the trough there or any of the other rocks, or if one could be sucked into an underwater cave or something?

 

[HinterlandObserver]

And a view from the headland looking out to sea over cosy corner

 

[HinterlandObserver]

All that vegetation where the blue line is needs to be thoroughly searched. I wish I still loved in the region to help

There’s also “the pipeline” mentioned in the inquest I would like to go follow. Allegedly totally possible to follow and walk up to the track above. I’d like to check where it pops out.
Still a possibly believable scenario for me as the evidence in the inquest still suggests the phone moves after GPS is off, through triangulation.

 

[butterstick]

Silly question, but how safe is it roaming around in those bushes?

The podcasts and media reports make everything seem to dire, with druggies and the criminal element.

It would feel odd to walk into a homeless persons space, but I'm sure the majority of those people would be fine, and just annoyed at most.

 

[HinterlandObserver]

Silly question, but how safe is it roaming around in those bushes?

The podcasts and media reports make everything seem to dire, with druggies and the criminal element.

It would feel odd to walk into a homeless persons space, but I'm sure the majority of those people would be fine, and just annoyed at most.

Through covid a lot changed in town. It’s more inconvenient to be in Byron if you’re no fixed address now as they closed Centrelink, so most crew moved to brunz to be close to it there. I’ve never personally actually come across anyone inhabiting any camps I’ve found at Tallows or Clarkes. There’s actually piles of tents, mattresses, random junk in different areas like it was cleaned up but they never actually removed the stuff.
I know there are still permanent campers around but they are usually in more convenient Proximity to main beach/facilities.
Also you’re never actually really that far from anyone else, with houses and people walking around.

 

[BruceBanner]

Hello Sleuths,

The attached photos are from various dates in 2019. As you can see the cricket nets were also used as a parking space for numerous locals. There is one car in particular that has been frequently photographed parking here throughout 2019. Has there been any investigation into this? Could Theo have possibly met someone at a car for 7 minutes before heading to the beach?
These photos are from satellite images from NEARMAP. The dates of photos are at the bottom of the images.

Thanks,