Five years on, the burden of backpacker’s disappearance lingers: ‘A huge toll on our family’
Every year, tens of thousands of tourists swarm to the idyllic NSW holiday hamlet of Byron Bay.
The town swells in numbers during the summer as holidaymakers enjoy the beaches, the pubs, the clubs and the food.
In 2019, Theo Hayez was one of those tourists. He was just 18 years old, and had come to Australia from Belgium.
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The backpacking student had initially visited Sydney before making a beeline for Byron to enjoy the warmer weather.
On May 31 of that year, he went to the town’s Cheeky Monkey bar, enjoyed a few drinks and left at about 11pm.
That was the last anyone saw of him.
In the five years since Hayez’s disappearance, his family has never stopped looking for answers. Along with hundreds of volunteers, they’ve scoured the Byron coastline with their own bare hands looking for clues.
A $500,000 reward remains open for information that helps solve the mystery. The family hopes the reward is eventually claimed.
“We think of him every single day,“ his dad Laurent Hayez told 7NEWS in an exclusive interview.
Laurent and his niece Lisa Hayez both say the pain of not knowing what happened to their beloved son and cousin is particularly difficult.
“We still do not have any answers, we do not have any proof he is dead,” Lisa said. “We still have hope.”
Lisa says while the family desperately wants to know what happened, it is nevertheless dreading a call from police saying Hayez’s body has been found.
“It took a huge toll on our family,” Lisa told 7NEWS. “We are still navigating it today. Still having conversations about it. How do you live with something like that? How do you mentally live with it?
“Each member of our family is dealing with it differently. And trying to live with it the best we can.”
A coronial inquest in 2022 ruled that the Belgian backpacker died shortly after leaving the Cheeky Monkey bar, but the coroner couldn’t rule if the death had been accidental or the result of foul play.
The Hayez family has fond memories of the spirit of Byron, as evidenced by those who helped in their desperate search.
“We still feel the support from the Byron Bay community, and it moves us very much,” Laurent said. “Thank you for not forgetting Theo.”
Lisa added: “The Byron Bay community has been so incredibly supportive from day one. They created a big team of people, and there were with us 24/7. They are still there — if I call them tomorrow they would be there and help”.
But the family was also frustrated by a lack of official support.
“We could see there was a lack of resources in the police force and that’s something that needs to be worked on,” Lisa said.
Laurent can’t help but think about the man his son would be, five years on, saying: “He would be 23 and studying engineering and be very happy … just like he was in the past.”
