Byron Bay locals traumatised by mystery of missing Belgian teen
A young man vanishes from Australia’s most famous beach playground and hasn’t been seen since. Now, Byron Bay locals feel as though they have lost their innocence as they do everything they can to find missing Belgian teen Theo Hayez.
Byron Bay is a curious and often volatile mix of the rich, the poor, the healthy and the hedonistic but they have been united by one thing — the disappearance of Theo Hayez.
Theo is everywhere. His smiling picture is in shop windows, on phone booths and signposts. He is on television and radio and he is on the minds of everyone in Byron Bay. But the 18-year-old Belgian backpacker is nowhere to be found.
The locals often argue and whinge about the unrelenting waves of visitors — as many as two million a year — but the plight of a teen from the other side of the world has silenced the grumbles.
They have thrown off their attitudes and donned gumboots and hats to scour the town’s bushland. Those that can’t search, cook.
Nicoletta Revis has organised a roster for volunteers to provide lunch and dinner for the family, who have also been provided with free accommodation and cars.
MORE FROM JANE HANSEN:
Campaign to clean up lunch box horrors
Parents rally over hospital maternity closure
Notes of hope and prayers accompany slow-cooked lamb, stuffed eggplants, gourmet sausages and home-cooked brownies.
“People are cooking and pouring love into the meals and not expecting anything in return. For me it’s about providing the basics and I’m half-Greek so if someone is going through a tough or emotional time, we cook,” Ms Revis said.
Deb Milgate, who joined the search on the first day, has a 19-year-old who was in town that night and she was worried about him being cold and opting to sleep in his car if he had a few too many drinks.
“Growing up in Byron, it’s such a carefree town and it surprises me someone can just disappear. Even mum, who is 88, says she can’t stop thinking about him and the older ones in the community, who are dismissive of the backpackers, are feeling the same,” she said.
“This poor kid has just vanished, gone,” Christos Tsesmetzis said.
Mr Tsesmetzis, who has been mobilising troops online to search, lost his father young, and recently lost his mother, and he admits to be obsessed with finding Theo.
“I don’t think I’ve slept. I haven’t stopped, but there is no way we can back down. The last thing we want is for the Hayez family to go back without Theo,” he said.
“We can’t give up. We need some type of closure.”
After four weeks of an extensive land and sea search, police abandoned the search last Wednesday, but locals have vowed to continue to search the hundreds of hectares of bush, coastal scrub, wetlands and rainforest that surround the town.
It is a view of a dark side of Byron.
During the day, even in winter, the beaches are dotted with young, firm bodies baking in the sun and blissfully ignoring the advice of their parents about being sun safe.
Off the pure white sand beaches, dolphins and whales frolic in azure waters, and the lush, green mountains that embrace the bay delight the senses.
It is easy to see why the carefree, the rich, the famous and the downtrodden beat a path to bask in the sheer physical beauty of the place. It feels like nothing could ever go wrong in such a utopia.
But it does. Byron after dark can be bad. It has one of the highest alcohol-related assault rates in the country. Drink spiking and sexual assaults happen with disturbing regularity.
It has up to two million visitors passing through every year. Every second car is a van with number plates from elsewhere. It is itinerant.
Theo landed in Australia last November and began his gap year grand adventure around Australia from Melbourne.
He travelled to Byron Bay on Wednesday, May 29 after catching up with his 20-year-old cousin Liza Hayez in Brisbane the previous weekend. It was Lisa who encouraged him to visit the backpacker haven before he was due to fly back home the following weekend.
“I kept saying to him you have to go to Byron Bay, you’ll love it. I’d already been a few times for weekends and the atmosphere is so chill and a different world for us,” Lisa said.
Cheeky Monkey’s opens the doors early for cheap $10 meals with a $5 discount for some backpacker hostels.
On Friday, May 31, Theo followed a crowd of travellers just like him to “Australia’s number one party bar”. He bought wine beforehand at a bottle shop, captured on CCTV. The next CCTV footage shows him leaving Cheeky Monkey’s shortly after 11pm. He was asked to leave after being identified as intoxicated.
Police confirm he left without any issues. He turned left down Kingsley St and then vanished. The lighthouse, where his mobile phone last pinged, is too far from Kingsley St to walk.
It was not until the following Thursday, June 6, that he was reported missing. The Wakeup hostel noted he had not checked out on Tuesday, June 4 as planned and his passport and belongings were still in his room.
He was due at his godfather’s in Melbourne on the Friday, June 7 before returning to Belgium, which, Lisa insists, he was excited about.
By Friday, Lisa was organising her own search with locals like Noelene Smith and Deb Milgate joining in. Police started the search on Saturday, a week after Theo’s phone left that last, haunting ping. Early searches concentrated on the area between the nightclub toward Clarkes Beach and east toward the Cape.
But on CCTV footage near the service station south of Main Beach and at the Aloha apartments on Shirley St, Theo’s family believe he was seen heading back toward his hostel, in the opposite direction.
Police won’t confirm because they can’t see his face but Lisa believes Theo was heading back to his accommodation.
“I believe he was walking home. It’s a 13 minute walk. I have done it a hundred times, but we just don’t know where else to look,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.
The reality is there are only two possible scenarios. Somehow Theo ended up in the water and drowned. But is was 9C that night and the first bite of winter brought a huge swell. No-one would go into the water by choice. The other, more sinister scenario, is foul play. But police say there is not a shred of evidence to support either theory.
More than five weeks later, hopes of finding Theo alive have faded.
“It has been like a balm on our bleeding hearts,” Laurent Hayez said.
“Theo is on everyone’s minds and it is amazing to see that. They consider Theo as their own son and I feel any parents feel our concern. The support they (the community) bring to us gives us force to keep faith,” he said.
This Thursday, 24 hours after police told the family the search was being abandoned, a core group of volunteers met with Laurent and Vinciane and Theo’s other family members.
Noelene Smith, a local mum who has been searching since day one, said they pledged to continue searching.
“We brainstormed about where they would like us to search,” she said
“They are devastated by the police ending the search so we pledged we would continue and asked them where do you want us to search.”
Ms Smith said even the homeless had opened their hearts and campsites to be searched.
Today, the locals will search more closely around Tallow Beach bushland below the Cape.
Robert Rose, a local rock fisherman has also been searching since day one.
“I grew up here, I feel it’s a safe place where people don’t go missing without a good reason,” the 46-year-said.
“I’ve been searching around the rocks because I know in my heart the rocks are dangerous.”
Noted! How Aussies chasing winning edge at Youth America’s Cup
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but Australian sailors are relying on it giving them an extra edge at the America’s Cup youth regatta in Barcelona.
Police Minister blames Border Force for flood of cocaine
Police Minister Yasmin Catley has taken an extraordinary swipe at Australian Border Force, blaming it for the huge prevalence of cocaine in Sydney.