Locals keep light on in search for missing Theo Hayez

Ground zero in the disappearance of Belgian tourist Theo Hayez is a small bar in the centre of Byron Bay.

Byron Bay locals Sheri D’Rosario, flanked by twins Jacalyn, left, and Renee Scott at Cape Byron lighthouse, near where Theo Hayez is believed to have vanished. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Ground zero in the disappearance of Belgian tourist Theo Hayez is a small bar in the centre of Byron Bay.

It’s where Theo went just ­before he vanished, where he was asked to leave for reasons many find hard to accept.

It’s also where the search for the missing 18-year-old began, where his young cousins first met a small group of Byron locals who’d seen their online pleas for help. The search for answers by Byron residents hasn’t stopped.

They can’t believe someone can visit their beautiful beachside town of 10,000 and never be seen again. “It’s so transient, but Byron is still a small community,” said ­Jacalyn Scott, a 36-year-old property manager.

“It’s so baffling that just going from A to B you can just vanish.”

Jacalyn, twin sister Renee and local mum Sheri D’Rosario are key members of an unofficial search team helping Theo’s family. They’ve scoured rugged bushland at their own risk for months.

They’ve rallied behind Theo’s distant parents, who can’t be here to do the search themselves. And they’ve joined the family in a private investigation, parallel to the major police inquiry into Theo’s unexplained disappearance.

The family and local volunteers have discovered key information about Theo’s movements, to be detailed and investigated in The Australian’s new podcast ­series, The Lighthouse, launched on Friday. Theo’s family believe someone must know something. They don’t believe he was alone the night he went missing.

The local volunteers hope to help others too. They say police were unprepared to handle the spontaneous response from locals wanting to help.

Renee Scott, a naturopath, says joining the State Emergency Service doesn’t suit everyone and every emergency.

She believes more needs to be done to support and encourage community participation in spontaneous searches.

“It was definitely not encouraged. Police were turning people away in front of us,” she said.

Theo was on his third night in Byron when he was asked to leave Cheeky Monkey’s bar in Jonson Street around 11pm on Friday, May 31 for being intoxicated. He hasn’t been seen since.

But two young travellers who went to the bar with him have told The Lighthouse that Theo wasn’t drunk when they saw him. They can’t understand why he was ­kicked out.

“He was pretty normal and ­relaxed, nothing special. Nothing weird,” one traveller, tracked down in The Netherlands, tells The Lighthouse. “So he was not drunk or anything. He could have normal conversations.”

The group of travellers went to the bar about 9.30pm after a barbecue and drinks at the WakeUp! hostel where Theo was staying.

Paul O’Brien from Red Rock, the company that owns Cheeky Monkey’s, says it’s straightforward. “My understanding is he was a polite kid, there wasn’t anything that he’d done to anybody, but he was showing signs of being wobbly on his feet, in which case we’re not allowed to have people on the premises,” Mr O’Brien said.

He confirmed Theo had only two drinks in the bar and had not been aggressive.

“We have to ask people to leave, by law. They’re not allowed to be on the premises if they’re showing signs of intoxication.”

Theo’s godfather, Jean-Philippe Pector, who lives in Victoria, wants to know more. “You ask yourself, why — why him, and not somebody else?” Mr Pector said.

“The more I think about it, the more upsetting it is, because it’s the start of everything. Like, if he was not asked to leave he would probably be still around. Even though if they had the right to do it, you still want to know, but why?

“What makes you choose him rather than somebody else when you know that everyone in the bar is approaching intoxication?

“So, giving that as an explanation of asking him to leave, it’s not enough.”

Theo’s family realised he was missing six days later.

Staff at a Westpac bank branch who understood the family’s desperation bent the rules and told them Theo’s last bank transactions were at Cheeky Monkey’s.

His cousins, Lisa Hayez and Michael Dorkhom, were in Queensland and put call outs on Facebook groups for help, asking people to meet them outside the bar on Saturday, June 8.

“We went there at 9am on the Saturday,” Mr Dorkhom said. “We didn’t think there was going to be anyone. But, yeah, we had a few people showing up on that first day, which was pretty crazy to us.”

Ms D’Rosario, a clinical psychologist, said it was especially ­important for Theo’s parents in Brussels to have local support.