Sydney, Nov. 19, (dpa/GNA) – A second coronial inquest into the 2005 murder of a German backpacker in Australia will be held in February next year.
The Department of Communities and Justice confirmed to dpa on Thursday the second inquiry into Simone Strobel’s death would be going ahead in February 2021, but could not yet provide any further details.
At an inquest in 2007, the then-state coroner ruled there was insufficient evidence to lay charges over the 25-year-old school teacher’s murder.
Three fellow travellers, including Strobel’s boyfriend, had been suspects in the initial hearing.
Strobel was last seen at a caravan park in Lismore, on the New South Wales far-north coast, after a night out with her boyfriend and friends on February 11, 2005.
Her body was found six days later hidden under palm fronds at a sports field around 100 metres from the caravan park.
Nobody has been charged over her death.
New South Wales police in October announced a 1-million-dollar (714,000-US-dollar) reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Simone Strobel’s death.
Earlier this month, police said since the reward was announced they had received “new information that will inform the ongoing investigation.”
Inspector Grant Erickson has told local newspaper The Northern Star that German authorities had changed the classification of a former suspect to a witness.
He also revealed that police were “looking at the advancements in DNA technology.”
A critical piece of evidence could not be used in 2007 because the technology at the time was “not sufficiently advanced” to identify who it came from.
GNA