Did a French backpacker fake his death and move to Queensland?
Did French backpacker Antoine Herran fake his death and move to Queensland?
After more than two decades, new DNA testing could provide answers.
In the early hours of April 12, 1998, an anonymous call to police was made from a payphone at The Gap in Sydney’s Watsons Bay, reporting a man had just jumped from the nearby cliffs.
Did Antoine Herran fake his death at The Gap in Sydney?
Officers rushed to the scene, and found a torch pointing directly at a backpack belonging to then-28-year-old Herran.
The body of a man was recovered from the rocks below the following day and Herran’s family was asked to come to Australia to confirm his identity.
When they did, they got the shock of their lives – it was not him.
Then came another twist. The family was played a recording of the original emergency call, and immediately identified the speaker as Antoine.
He has not been seen since.
“A part was torn from me for good the day the door of the morgue opened and it wasn’t my brother,” Herran’s sister Sophie Giampetruzzi told this masthead.
“Everything stopped for me that day.”
Herran was booked on a flight back to France for the day he disappeared. Investigators later confirmed he had checked in at Sydney Airport, before catching the train to Watsons Bay.
Former NSW Police detective Michael Gerondis led the original investigation. He remained convinced Herran faked his death to stay in Australia, and was now living under an assumed identity.
“There’s no way he jumped,” the ex-detective said.
“He was so calm on the phone ... All his stuff was with his backpack except his passport. I think he kept that just in case.
“He’d been to an immigration place just beforehand to ask, ‘How do I get to stay in Australia?’ And they told him ‘no chance, mate’.”
Childhood photos of Antoine Herran with sister Sophie.Credit: Sophie Giampetruzzi
Gerondis – a private investigator – believed Herran was probably in north Queensland, would now be 54 years old and possibly passing himself off as Italian.
“That was his second time to Australia and he loved it. He loved Queensland and went on a helicopter tour out there,” the ex-detective said.
“It’s because he lived in northern France, where it’s cold and raining all the time.
“He said to his parents that’s ideal Australia, that’s what his notion of Australia was and he loved it there near Cairns … that’s where I think he is.”
Parents of missing French tourist Antoine Herran, Francoise and Jean-Francois, in Sydney.
Giampetruzzi and Gerondis have reconnected recently. This year they organised to conduct DNA testing in the hope of tracking down any children Herran may have in Australia.
“I made this decision simply to find out if my brother is still alive,” Giampetruzzi said.
“I think it would be another possibility to find a trace of him somewhere. I know it’s been 26 years already, but there isn’t a single moment in my life when I don’t hope to see him again.
“I am now 50 years old, I remarried in 2022 and I have no children. This is surely linked to my brother unconsciously.
“Really, I am still angry at his gesture of having disappeared of his own volition. There is surely a reason for him that he considers valid.
The notorious coastal cliff known as The Gap at Watsons Bay.Credit: Brendan Esposito
“But for me, it changed my whole life, all my personal projects.”
Asked if Herran could have jumped and washed out to sea, Gerondis remained steadfast.
“There’s no way in the world. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“He’s here. I just don’t know what he’s doing.”
Giampetruzzi said the mystery had put huge strain on her family.
“In reality, I think that wanting to find a missing person is purely selfish but also an act full of love,” she said.
“Selfish because I would like to know if he is alive so that I can see him at least once and know that despite all these years, he is happy to have made this terrible choice.
“People can think what they want, it’s normal. They say to themselves, if he disappeared of his own volition, it is because he had his reasons and so let him live quietly.
“These people do not know the suffering of waiting to know the truth about the disappearance, the tearing apart between family members, friends or others.”
Herran was 182 centimetres tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.
His family said he had a distinctive scar in the shape of a question mark on his abdomen.
“The matter was put before the coroner in 2006 and came back with an open finding,” a spokesperson for NSW Police told Brisbane Times.
“[It] is currently under review by NSW police, but we can’t provide more information at this time.”
If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (see lifeline.org.au), Beyond Blue on1300 22 4636 (see beyondblue.org.au) or 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.