The family of murdered German backpacker Simone Strobel have revealed the heartbreaking last words they heard from their daughter, and shared their disappointment about charges being dropped over her death.
German kindergarten teacher Simone Ms Strobel was 25-years-old when she died in Lismore while on holiday in 2005. An inquest in 2007 found she was most likely murdered.
Gabi and Gustl Strobel can still hear their daughter's last words in their ears.
"I'm fine," she said during the almost hour-long phone call. "Everything is so beautiful here, Dad, you won't believe how beautiful the world is."
Two days later, she was dead.
The Strobel family, who live in Rieden in the Wrzburg district of Germany, has been waiting 18 years for answers on how their daughter died.
They had hoped the arrest of Ms Strobel's former boyfriend, Tobias Freidrich Moran (nee Suckfuell), in July 2022 might lead to a trial and give them answers as to how, and why, she died. But now those charges have now been dropped.
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew a charge of murder and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice against Tobias Freidrich Moran (nee Suckfuell) in Lismore Local Court on Wednesday, June 14.
"Our disappointment is of course huge," Gustl Strobel said. "After eighteen years, we seem to have come no closer to solving Simone's death."
Following the hearing, Mr Moran gave statements to the media urging the Strobel family to join him in calling for a cold case review of Ms Strobel's death.
These comments angered the usually private Strobel family, who say Mr Moran has not spoken with them for fifteen years, and that he refused to co-operate with a previous inquiry into her death.
Ms Strobel arrived in Australia in late 2004 with her boyfriend Tobias Moran (nee Suckfuell) for a holiday.
The pair booked into the Lismore Tourist Caravan Park with Mr Moran's sister Katrin Suckfuell, and friend Jens Martin on Friday, February 11, 2005.
They set up camp in a van and a small tent before heading to the Gollan Hotel in the Lismore CBD later that night.
CCTV captured the group outside the hotel on the corner of Woodlark and Keen streets, one of the last times Ms Strobel was seen alive.
The group said she went for a walk after returning to the campsite and did not return.
Ms Strobel was reported missing to police the next day, and a search commenced, involving police and the SES.
Ms Strobel's body was found six days later on Thursday February 17, 2005, less than 100m from their camp site, hidden under palm fronds at the Lismore Continental Club.
At a coronial inquest in 2007, then-State Coroner, Paul McMahon, ruled there was insufficient evidence to lay charges over Ms Strobel's death.
Mr MacMahon said it was clear from the evidence that Ms Strobel's death was not the result of any natural cause or accident, and most likely the result of suffocation or smothering asphyxia, at a site other than where her body was found.
Ms Strobel's travelling companion Mr Martin gave evidence at the inquiry, but neither Mr Moran nor his sister, Katrin Suckfuell attended.
A second coronial inquest was planned for February 2022, but did not proceed.
Mr Moran and his wife Samantha Moran gave a press conference in Perth following the decision by the NSW DPP to not pursue charges against him.
Speaking for Mr Moran, his wife said: "While it is a relief for our family, we are conscious that this news does not give answers for the Strobel family".
"I know that there is not a day that goes by that Toby does not think of Simone and wishes that he had stopped her walking away that night," Mrs Moran said.
"Toby continues to be traumatised by the loss of Simone, as well as the speculation surrounding him."
In a statement released by Mr Moran's legal team, he said the police focus on him as a suspect was was another "lost opportunity for justice for Simone".
Mr Moran believed the "investigational bias" against him had prejudiced the truth of Simone's death from being revealed and hoped a cold case review, something his legal team said he has been requesting for many years, would finally be granted.
The statement said he was also "deeply concerned about the unnecessary trauma and stress these charges and the abandoned coronial inquest has had on Simone's grieving family in Germany".
It said Mr Moran "hopes Simone's family will join him in seeking a cold case review as he believes there is evidence and leads that should be, and need to be, followed but that it will only happen with new investigator".
These comments by Mr Moran sparked an outraged response from the Strobel family, who have made little comment so far on the court case.
While they do not accuse Mr Moran of killing Mr Strobel, they are "puzzled" by his actions following her death.
"To this day, Tobias and his sister - the people closest to our daughter when she was murdered - have not given us any information about what happened on the day she died. Tobias claims to speak for us in his press release, but he doesn't. Tobias M. has not contacted us since 2009," Mr Strobel said.
"That puts the crown on the whole thing and shows his character."
"Why didn't he show up at the first hearing about Simone's death in 2007 if he's so interested in the clarification?" he said.
He was questions about why "Tobias lied to the police and encouraged his fellow travellers to withhold important evidence in connection with the murder" - information that was revealed by Jens Martin during the 2007 coronial inquest.
Mr Martin told the inquest Mr Moran had coached him and Ms Suckfuell on what to tell police about the events leading up to Ms Strobel's disappearance.
Mr Martin told the inquest he agreed to lie because he had been smoking cannabis the night before, which he knew was illegal, and because Mr Suckfuell had told him he didn't want to be a suspect.
It related to information that there had been friction between Mr Moran and Ms Strobel prior to her disappearance.
Mr Moran has always denied any involvement in the death of Simone Strobel.
Kim Ivosevac, representing Mr Moran's Perth-based solicitor David Quayle, said Mr Moran would be applying for costs at a hearing in Lismore Local Court on June 28.
The New South Wales Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions noted the possibility of future coronial proceedings and said it "makes no further comment".
The Strobel family appealed to the authorities not to give up their search for the truth of what happened to their daughter.
"Even though today's announcement shocks and saddens us, we thank the dedicated investigators in Australia and Germany who are working so hard to achieve justice for Simone," the family said.
Following Mr Moran's statements about a case review, the family said they now expect Mr Moran and his sister Katrin Suckfuell to fully cooperate and then appear as witnesses if a further inquest is held.
"Our hope now rests on the fact that the new investigation, which was launched shortly before the indictment was brought, can now proceed without delay and that Tobias and his sister will fully cooperate and appear as witnesses there," Ms Strobel said.
The NSW Government offered a $1 million reward for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Ms Strobel's homicide.
