Australian prosecutors drop murder charge over German backpacker’s death in 2005

Australian prosecutors dropped a murder charge Wednesday against German immigrant Tobias Moran over the death of his German backpacker girlfriend Simone Strobel in 2005.
Charges of murder and perverting the course of justice were withdrawn in Lismore Local Court in New South Wales state, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in an email. No reasons were given.
The naked body of 25-year-old Strobel from Rieden, Bavaria, was found hidden under palm fronds in a Lismore park on Feb. 17, 2005. She was found six days after she was reported missing and close to where she had been camping in a Lismore trailer park with Moran, then known as Suckfuell, his sister Katrin Suckfuell, and friend Jens Martin.
Moran, now 43, was arrested in July 2022 in the west coast city of Perth where he lived. He was extradited to New South Wales and charged with murder and perverting the course of justice. A Sydney court released him on bail and allowed him to return to Western Australia state.