Coronial
NSWcommunity

Inquest into the death of Simone Strobel

Deceased

Simone Monika Strobel

Demographics

25y, female

Date of death

2005-02-12

Finding date

2025-11-06

Cause of death

Undetermined

AI-generated summary

25-year-old German national Simone Strobel was found dead on 17 February 2005 near Lismore, NSW, covered with palm fronds. She died between midnight and 5:30am on 12 February 2005 following an argument with her boyfriend at a caravan park. The coroner found she died from homicide by person(s) unknown—the cause of death could not be determined despite multiple autopsies. Critical clinical/forensic lessons: the vast decomposition made pathological determination impossible; forensic entomology confirmed death within 1-2 days; absence of injury does not exclude asphyxia, strangulation, or sexual assault; and contamination issues compromised DNA evidence. The case remained unsolved across two coronial inquests and 20 years of investigation. The coroner recommended referral to the Unsolved Homicide Team for further DNA testing and expert analysis of cause of death.

AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.

Contributing factors

  • Advanced decomposition preventing pathological determination
  • Conflicting witness evidence regarding last sightings
  • Contamination of DNA exhibits
  • Difficulty accessing crime scene location
  • Limited forensic findings of obvious injury
  • Unsolved homicide investigation across two countries

Coroner's recommendations

  1. Referral to NSW Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team (UHT) for assessment and monitoring in accordance with operating procedures
  2. Review exhibits, particularly the male DNA profile recovered from Simone's black top, to determine whether further items or DNA profiles should be forensically tested and whether any DNA profiles can be matched
  3. Conducting further analysis of the mtDNA profile recovered from Hair A
  4. Determining whether further expert opinion regarding the cause of Simone's death can be obtained
Full text

Source and disclaimer

This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.

Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.

Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —