The Lighthouse podcast: mystery man linked to Theo Hayez’s last location

A man living in a beachside camp is the new focus in the case of missing Belgian tourist | NEW EPISODE

Missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez.

Volunteers searching for missing Belgian tourist Theo Hayez in Byron Bay say a man was living in a mystery beachside homeless camp and hid when they ­approached.

The camp was beside where Theo Hayez emerged from dense bushland on the night he dis­appeared. It was later abandoned and has been described as a critical lead for police to investigate.

READ MORE: Was Theo hiding? | Timeline | The people involved | The Lighthouse podcast: all episodes | Theo’s Google data with destiny

By coincidence, the man spotted at the camp appeared to be the same person from a driver’s ­licence the searchers had found days earlier in bushland near Cosy Corner at Tallow Beach, to where Theo was last traced.

The Australian’s investigative podcast, The Lighthouse, has established the man in the driver’s ­licence has been homeless on and off for years. Family members said they had not heard from him for about five years.

App users tap here for Episode 5: The cliffs

The campsite is now abandoned, but Byron resident Renee Scott said someone was living in a tent under a tarp when searchers came across it on July 5, just over a month after Theo vanished.

“The tarp was very clean compared to some of the other camps, and very organised and tied on ­really well,” she said. “We believe he would have been possibly still there when Theo was there and walked through, because it was very established. He had a tent, he had a surfboard actually.

“He just hid. A lot of homeless have done that, they sort of just check you out a little bit and hide a bit. He didn’t want to be ­approached, basically.”

Searchers did not try to speak to the man, having had little experience at the time with Byron’s large homeless community.

“He was tall, lean, bushy sort of hair, I couldn’t tell if it was tied-up brown hair, and a beard, brown beard,” she said.

Ms Scott was with her twin sister, Jacalyn Scott, and Jacalyn’s boyfriend, David Clarke, when the man was spotted. Jacalyn said they had only recently been shown a map of Theo’s route after his family tracked it via his mobile phone and Google account.

“The ID was found in the bush in an unusual spot,” Jacalyn said. “When Dave said he looked like the guy on the ID, it just sort of sent a little alarm bell off.”

When they later returned to the camp, the tarp was there but the tent and man were gone.

“It looks like a permanent set-up that he comes and goes from,” Jacalyn said. The man in the ­licence has not replied to mess­ages. His sister and stepfather said he was homeless.

“I haven’t seen my brother in maybe five years,” his sister said.

“He lost the plot … Something doesn’t go his way he’ll just start screaming.

“He thinks everyone’s after him. He thinks the police are after him.

“I don’t see it, but when my seven-year-old was, like, six weeks old, he told me the police were tracking us and everything.”

Private investigator Ken Gamble offered to help Theo’s family after listening to the first episode of the podcast.

The family has now formally engaged Mr Gamble to assist with the case, and he is investigating pro bono.

“Clearly there’s evidence that there was somebody camping at that location where (Theo’s) come out,” Mr Gamble said.

“Now, if he’s come out in the middle of the night, at a camp where somebody is staying, he may very well have scared the living daylights out of the person camping there and there could have been a confrontation.

“Anything could have happened. So I think it’s very important to try to ascertain who those people were that were camping there … and particularly the movements of this particular person whose identity was found.

“(He) has to be interviewed and his movements at that time have to be confirmed.”

Renee Scott said she found the driver’s licence in one of the first searches at Tallow Beach after finding out Theo had gone there.

“About 20 of us lined the dunes and went all towards Cosy ­Corner,” she said.

“We found a little wallet. It was almost like an old camera case and we opened it up and pulled out the driver’s licence and a bank card, and both were quite damaged.

“But they were on top of the leaf litter so we don’t know how long they’d been there. And the licence was dropped back to the police ­station and, you know, we didn’t hear any more about it.”