1 - Lost in Byron Bay

November 1, 2019·47 min·4 clips

A Belgian backpacker vanishes in Byron Bay, sparking a volunteer search that eclipses the police investigation.

The episode opens at the Cape Byron Lighthouse, Australia's most powerful, which has become associated with the search for missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayes. Host David Murray introduces the case and walks Tallow Beach with volunteer Nicola de Rivas, describing an Indigenous ceremony the family participated in during their search. Theo Hayes was 18 years old, from Brussels, Belgium, and had been backpacking around Australia for six months when he disappeared. He had visited family and his godfather JP and was due to fly home to Brussels in two weeks to start an engineering degree. On Sunday May 26, the day after dinner with his cousins Lisa Hayes and Michael Dorkum in Brisbane, Theo took a bus to the Gold Coast and then to Byron Bay. He checked into the Wake Up Hostel at Belongil Beach on Wednesday May 29 and was due to check out on Monday June 3. On the night of Friday May 31, Theo met a fellow Belgian traveler named Antoine van Latham at the hostel. The two bought cask wine and attended a hostel barbecue before taking a shuttle bus to Cheeky Monkeys bar on Johnson Street. Staff at Cheeky Monkeys ejected Theo at around 11pm, reportedly for intoxication, although both Antoine and another Dutch backpacker say Theo was not visibly drunk when they arrived. Theo's last WhatsApp activity was at 12:56am on June 1. His family in Belgium did not realize he was missing for nearly a week. On Thursday June 6, his mother Vassiane Delforge alerted his cousin Lisa Hayes, who called Greyhound and found that Theo had not taken his booked bus. Lisa reported him missing, and the family discovered all his belongings were still at the hostel. Theo's godfather JP drove to the closed Westpac bank in Apollo Bay and, recognized as a customer, was shown Theo's last transactions: two payments at Cheeky Monkeys on the night he disappeared. The family scrambled: contacting the Belgian embassy, police across multiple states, and posting online appeals. Police were told Theo's phone had last pinged a cell tower near Cape Byron lighthouse. Helicopter and aquatic searches around Cape Byron and surrounding coastline in the days after his disappearance found nothing. Lisa and Michael posted appeals on backpacker Facebook groups and arrived in Byron Bay on Saturday June 9 to find strangers had turned up to help search. They discovered Theo's Greyhound ticket had been cancelled by the driver to free up space, not by Theo. CCTV footage from a Caltex petrol station and Aloha Villas showed a figure walking in the direction of the hostel after the time Theo was ejected from the bar, but image quality was insufficient for identification. The episode ends with family and volunteers committed to finding answers.

As heard by us

A measured missing-person investigation that turns small clues into momentum.

The Lighthouse opens with Byron Bay's beam and folds it into a missing-person case that stays close to the facts. It follows Theo Hayes, who vanished after leaving a bar on his third night in town, and uses family messages, a greyhound booking, a bank branch visit, and Theo's…

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Why you'd press play

Start here if you want a missing-person case built from family messages, bank activity, and other hard traces.

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