Thea Liddle search: Byron Bay skeletal remains ‘not linked to Theo Hayez’

Police rule out a link between the discovery of human bones and a missing Belgian backpacker.

Missing backpacker Theo Hayez on his Australian travels. Police say skeletal remains located near he went missing aren’t his. Picture: Supplied

Police have ruled out a link between skeletal remains discovered in Byron Bay bushland and missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez.

The remains were discovered with the assistance of a cadaver dog near Tallow Beach during the search for missing woman Thea Liddle.

The site is close to where Mr Hayez, 18, was last traced via his mobile phone after vanishing in the northern NSW town in May 2019.

Detective Chief Inspector Brendon Cullen said on Thursday the remains were yet to be identified but police were sure it was not Mr Hayez, whose disappearance was examined in The Australian’s investigative podcast The Lighthouse.

He added that there was “no connection whatsoever between the disappearance of Thea Liddle and the disappearance of Theo Hayez”.

“They are two completely separate incidents. It’s just coincidental they’re both in the Byron Bay district,” Chief Inspector Cullen said.

“It is shocking for the community. However both incidents are unique. They’re not associated in any shape or form.”

Remains were discovered with the assistance of a cadaver dog near Tallow Beach during the search for missing woman Thea Liddle.

Police were in constant contact with the family of Ms Liddle as they anxiously awaited police confirmation of the identity of the deceased, he said.

“As you could imagine they are very distraught, not knowing what has happened to their daughter.”

Ms Liddle’s social media profiles show she studied microbiology and worked at the CSIRO before adopting a nomadic lifestyle.

A homeless support worker said Ms Liddle, 42, sought help with accommodation last year, but could not be found when a place became available.

“You would have thought she was 30, but a very, very mature 30, and incredibly intelligent,” said the worker, who asked not to be named.

“She came to us around June trying to get us to help her look for accommodation because she was in a bad situation. She was very timid and very scared.

“We secured something for her but we couldn’t get a hold of her again.”

“She came back — but after about mid October we hadn’t seen her again.”

Ms Liddle was known to live in bushland around Byron Bay, where homeless camps can be found just metres away from some of the most highly-prized real estate in the country.

“She just seemed to live a nomadic life. She wasn’t someone you could get a lot of information out of,” the support worker said.

“She thought she wasn’t important. She thought everyone else needed the help more than she did.”

The discovery of the remains is a tale of two searches with very different outcomes.

Volunteers devoted months to searching bushland around Cape Byron Lighthouse for Mr Hayez, while the search for Ms Liddle turned up a body on the second day.

After previous searches elsewhere in northern NSW, including the hippie hamlet of Nimbin, police started looking for Ms Liddle in Byron bushland on Tuesday in what was planned to be a two-day search.

The remains were discovered at 1.20pm Wednesday in a bush camp site near Tallow Beach Road.

Volunteers had previously scoured the area several times in the search for Mr Hayez, just months before Ms Liddle went missing.

Mr Hayez walked out of Byron’s Cheeky Monkey’s bar on the night of Friday May 31, 2019, and vanished, with his family tracking his precise route to Tallow Beach by accessing his Google account.

Chief Inspector Cullen also said there was no evidence of an offender preying upon Byron’s homeless. Police did not know if the person was male or female and it may take weeks to confirm an identity.

”What we have here is an unexplained death,” he said.

“We don’t know who that person is or how they came to be there or the cause of death.”