Disappearance of Theo Hayez

Theo Hayez is an 18-year old Belgian backpacker who disappeared in the Cape Byron area. He was last sighted leaving Cheeky Monkey’s bar in Byron Bay at approximately 11:00 pm on the 31 May 2019.

Investigation

Hayez arrived in Australia in late 2018 on a working holiday visa and was due to fly home to Belgium a week after his disappearance.[1] The family called New South Wales police on 6 June after becoming concerned about his lack of contact and realising he had failed to return to his accommodation. The Wake Up! hostel where Hayez was staying also called the police on that same day, three days after Hayez failed to check out. His personal belongings, including his passport, were still in his room.

Hayez's parents Laurent Hayez and Vinciane Delforge came to Australia to assist in the searches in June 2019, making a plea to the Australian people to help in the searches; "When I left Belgium I promised Hayez's little brother, Lucas, I would bring his brother home, please help me keep my promise to him", Laurent said.

Australian police conducted searches along with helicopters, drones, dogs, trackers, divers and even rock climbers. Messaging platform Whatsapp cooperated with NSW Police in the endeavour to recover chat logs from the night. However, the information Whatsapp could provide was limited due to encryption.[2][3]

In July, a grey Puma hat similar to the one Hayez was wearing when he was last seen was found in bushland at Tallow Beach by community search volunteers. Hayez's final phone signal was determined to be in the proximity of Cape Byron on 1 June 2019. Investigations in conjunction with Hayez's family and Google suggest a last possible whereabouts in the vicinity of Cosy Corner, Tallow Beach.

Podcast

Per Hayez's family's request, The Australian national crime correspondent David Murray joined the searches. Murray spent three months with the unofficial search party and has documented his experience in a podcast called The Lighthouse.[4]

gollark: Nonsense.
gollark: The amount of resources you need aren't actually that high, even. Probably obtainable - slowly - with vanilla mining.
gollark: Given the integration with other mods, it seems designed to ridiculously overpower them, you see.
gollark: I mean, if I made a mod with a block which gave infinite amounts of any resource, BUT it needs 10 RF which it can't generate, it's overpowered.
gollark: Yes, totally valid.

References
  1. Thomas, Sarah (2019-07-18). "Theo Hayez's parents still have faith they'll find him — and that he may be held captive". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-07-18.
  2. Davies, Jessie; Shoebridge, Joanne; Reddie, crime reporter Mark (2019-06-18). "Why missing backpacker's encrypted WhatsApp messages may never be unlocked". ABC News. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  3. "Theo Hayez: Family hope WhatsApp messages will help find missing backpacker". SBS News. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  4. "The Lighthouse". www.theaustralian.com.au. 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
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