Perth man denies killing backpacker girlfriend Simone Strobel in first interview in years
A Perth man long suspected of killing his German backpacker girlfriend Simone Strobel has denied any role in her death, saying in his first media
A Perth man long suspected of killing his German backpacker girlfriend Simone Strobel has denied any role in her death, saying in his first media interview since 2005: “I made mistakes and I’m here to sort of own them, but I’m not a murderer.”
Tobias Moran, who was known as Tobias Suckfuell when Ms Strobel disappeared, told the ABC’s Unravel: Lies In Lismore podcast he was not involved in the killing. For nearly two decades, New South Wales police treated him as the main suspect.
Long shadow over a cold case
Ms Strobel vanished from a caravan park in Lismore, in northern New South Wales, late at night in February 2005 after she and Mr Moran argued. Her naked body, covered by palm fronds, was found less than 100 metres from the couple’s campsite six days later.
The case has lingered for years as one of Australia’s most closely watched backpacker deaths, drawing attention well beyond New South Wales because Ms Strobel was a 25-year-old German traveller and the investigation never produced a conviction. The latest twist comes after a 2024 inquest disputed key parts of the police theory.
Mr Moran was 24 at the time and quickly came under suspicion after he lied to police about the argument on the night Ms Strobel disappeared and about how much alcohol they had consumed. He also lied about not smoking marijuana, according to the material released on the case.
Police suspicion and Moran’s account
Investigators also focused on the broader behaviour around the night Ms Strobel went missing, including Mr Moran’s efforts to encourage two other German travellers, as well as his sister and a friend, to support his version of events. Police said for years that these inconsistencies helped make him the central figure in their inquiry.
Mr Moran now says that picture is incomplete. He has accused police of “tunnel vision” and insists the mistakes he acknowledges do not make him responsible for the death.
The ABC interview is his first public response in almost 20 years. It lands at a sensitive point for the case, with the inquest having reopened debate over what happened at the caravan park and how investigators read the evidence at the time.
For Ms Strobel’s family and for detectives still tied to the file, the comments are unlikely to close the case. If anything, they push the unresolved questions back into public view — and leave the focus on whether any further legal steps follow after the inquest’s challenge to the original police theory.
