Tobias Friedrich Moran, nee Suckfuell, the former boyfriend of murdered backpacker Simone Strobel, has been awarded $190,000 in court costs after the Lismore Local Court found there was "no reasonable cause" for him to be charged over her death.
Criminal charges against Mr Moran in relation to the death of Simone Strobel in Lismore in 2005 were dropped by the NSW Director of Public Prosecution in June 2023, nearly 12 months after he was sensationally arrested at his Perth home and extradited to NSW.
In Lismore court on October 11, 2023, the NSW DPP was ordered to pay costs in the amount of $190,000 to Tobias Friedrich Moran, on or before November 8, 2023.
Mr Moran has always denied any involvement in the death of Simone Strobel, and has called for a cold case review of the case.
After charges were dropped in June, Mr Moran's legal team released a statement that said the police focus on him as a suspect was another "lost opportunity for justice for Simone".
Ms Strobel arrived in Australia in late 2004 with Mr 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.
