Théo arrived in Byron Bay on the Wednesday 29th of May 2019. He checks in at the Wake Up! Hostel for a bed in a shared room of 6 people.

On the evening of the 31st of May 2019, Théo meets Antoine at the BBQ organised by Wake Up! Antoine is also Belgian and stays at the hostel but in a different room. Around 6:30pm, they take the shuttle together from the hostel to a bottle shop in central Byron Bay (Northern Bottle shop) where they bought a 2L cask of wine to share with others at the BBQ. Theo and Antoine take an Uber and return to the BBQ at Wake Up! where they spend the start of the evening together. Théo, Antoine and 4other people take the shuttle from the Wake Up! to go to Cheeky Monkey’s and arrive there at 09:35pm. They separate shortly after entering the bar. Théo spends a short time sitting at a table with a number of people. He and a young woman in a white t-shirt drink their glasses of beer. He gets up and dances on the table, as is the custom at the bar, along with some of the people who were at the table with him, including the young woman in the white t-shirt.He orders a 2nd beer and continues dancing with his glass in his hand. A bit later, he goes to the toilets. A security guard follows him and waits for him outside the toilets. When he comes out, the guard asks him to follow, which Theo does respectfully and without resistance. He is asked to leave the bar and the reason given was that he was approaching intoxication. He cooperated fully and was not aggressive.
He was last seen at 11:00pm, on the bar’s CCTV, leaving Cheeky Monkeys alone after turning left into Kingsley Street.
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The family managed to access his phone’s Google account and discovered that Théo had activated his phone’s GPS from 11:00pm to 00:05am. The path that his phone took and average speed was therefore rather accurately recorded. We presume that Théo was with his phone during that time. He walked from the Cheeky Monkey to the end of Tennyson Street (Recreational Grounds) stopped there for 7 minutes, behind the cricket nets and then start walking faster towards theEast to enter the Arakwal National Park on Milne Track but leave the track to follow the large sand path in the direction of Tallow Beach Car Park but, instead of continuing further towards the road, turns right into the thick bush scrub towards Tallow Beach, where there is no defined path. He eventually arrives on Tallow Beach and turn left and continues towards Cosy Corner. He enters a little clearing into the bush there and stops for 5:30 min before going back on the beach.
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This is where the GPS gets deactivated at 00:05am. It is not clear at this stage where he went after.Théo sent a message to a friend in Belgium at 00.20am on the 1st of Jun eand a last one on WhatsApp at 00:56am, to his stepsister in Belgium.
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The police have indicated that, based on the Telstra data analysis, Theo’s phone was in “sleep mode” (phone turned on but not in use) between 02:00 and 06:00am. The last ping from Theo’s mobile occurred at 1:42pm on June 1st 2019 and was received by the Telstra antenna on the water reservoir on Paterson Street, which has a broad coverage. That last “ping” didn’t contain a disconnection signal. When a mobile phone is switched off or switches itself off due to low battery, a specific signal is sent to the network to indicate that it is disconnecting. This signal was not received. There could be a number of reasons for this. Either the phone signal was lost due to lack of reception (the phone went out of range), the battery was removed, or the phone was damaged (broken or in the water).

• Théo was due to check out of the Wake Up! Hostel on the Monday 3rd of June 2019. Most of his belongings including his passport were left at theHostel.
• The alert of his disappearance was given by the family on the 6th of June after unsuccessful contact attempts.
• The NSW Police and the Belgian Embassy were informed that Théo was missing on that day.
• The Wake Up Hostel also called the police on that same day, 3 days after Théo was due to check out.
• The first Police media release is made on the 7th of June with a public appeal to locate Théo.
• The first volunteer search is organised by Lisa and Michael, Théo’s cousins on Saturday the 8th.
• Sunday 9th of June, Police conduct a major land, sea and air search in the Byron Bay area with the assistance of rescue officers, the StateEmergency Service, a lifesaver helicopter and lifesavers.‍
• Wednesday July 3rd 2019, NSW Police announce the full-scale search for Theo has been called off, but investigations are ongoing.
• On Sunday 7th of July, a cap matching the description of Theo’s was found in bushland by volunteers on the path he took through the bush in the National Park.
• The family and police are convinced that it is Théo’s hat. The cap found was the exact same model and colour (grey, not black), shows the same wear and tear on the brim, and the position precisely matches one of his last known GPS locations.‍
• Thursday 5th of September, the Byron Bay Police Detective informs the family that they have determined a most likely scenario in which Théo would have fallen into the ocean and taken away by the currents. The explanation given for the path that Théo took after leaving the Cheeky Monkeys is that he was lost and confused thinking he was heading back to the hostel. Although no definitive piece of information can exclude this theory, no physical evidence has consolidated it and all the other possible scenarios haven’t been unvalidated either. Following this, police also informs the family that they are getting ready to refer the matter to the Coroner.
• The matter has been officially received by the Coroner on the 16th September 2019.