Théo land in Australia in Melbourne where he is welcomed by his Godfather, Jean-Philippe Pector (J-P). He stays with JP, his wife, and children at their home in the Otways for a bit more than a month.

Théo stays in Melbourne.
He returns to the Otways for a few days to celebrate Christmas with J-P and family.
Goes to Sydney to meet with his cousin Lisa Hayez for New Year.

Théo stays in Melbourne with Lisa and work at the Australian Open.
End of the month, start farm work in Shepparton.

Back in Melbourne.
End of the month, Théo heads off to travel in Tasmania.

Road trips: Around Alice Spring and from Alice Spring to Darwin, Lichtfield, Kakadu.
End of the month, Théo leaves for Cairns.

Théo works for a family near Cairns until mid-April.
Travels to visit Great Barrier Reef.

Théo travel down on the East Coast: visit the Whitsundays (yacht), Agnès Water (surfing), Fraser Island, Rainbow Beach, Noosa (surfing)

Theo visits his cousins Lisa Hayez and Michael Dorkhom in Brisbane. He has dinner with them and stays overnight.

Theo takes a bus to the Gold Coast.

Theo takes a bus to Byron Bay and checks into the Wake Up! Hostel at 2.30pm.

In the early evening, Theo and a new friend from his hostel catch the hostel’s shuttle bus into town to buy some alcohol for a barbecue that night. They catch an Uber back to the hostel about 7.45pm.

After the barbecue at the hostel, the backpackers decide to go to Cheeky Monkey’s, a local bar, walking there and arriving at 9.35pm.

The travellers become separated in the bar. Theo is asked to leave at about 11pm, with police saying that the reason given by the bar was that “he was approaching intoxication”.

Theo starts walking away from Cheeky Monkey’s. Just over a minute later, he stops on Kingsley Street for a minute and enters the address of his hostel into Google Maps. He then continues walking for four minutes and 40 seconds at an average speed of just over 7km per hour.

At the end of Tennyson Street, near the edge of the bushland that surrounds the Byron Youth Activities Centre, he stops for a total of almost seven minutes. There are cricket nets here, and a concrete slab, and Google data shows Theo’s phone was within three metres of this spot.

We assume from here that Théo’s phone movements correspond to Théo’s movements and that he was not separated from his phone. He leaves the concrete slab behind the cricket nets at the end of Tennyson Street. He crosses to the other side of the sports field, winding his way through suburban streets to Massinger Street.According to the Google data, he walked this section at almost 6km per hour and checked Google Maps a couple of times on the way. The map always had the wayback to his hostel.

From Massinger Street, Theo heads through more suburban streets until he reachesMilne Street where suburbia ends and there’s a clearing looking out over Arakwal National Park to the ocean and to the lighthouse.

From here, Theo does not take the Milne Track which leads straight to Tallow Beach, but instead heads onto a separate bush track heading north, going an average speed of more than 7.5 kilometres an hour - pretty much jogging - in difficult terrain. Theo was going fast through the national park in the pitch black.

He stops and looks again at the itinerary to his hostel on Google Maps. Again he heads in the opposite direction, heading right, further into the bush.

Theo reaches Tallow Beach, exiting the bush via a tiny path. Right near the exit is a camp site. He looks again on Google Maps at the itinerary to his hostel.

Theo then walks to Cosy Corner at the northern end of Tallow Beach at an average speed of just under 6km per hour.

Just before midnight, Theo leaves the beach at Cosy Corner and goes into the bush, towards a steep hill with thick bushland and lantana.  Surrounded by a tangle of vines and shielded from the outside world, Theo stops for five and half minutes.

He then takes less than two minutes to go back down to the beach.

Google Timeline’s GPS tracking of Theo ends. According to Google, at this time Theo was at Cosy Corner.

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Theo sends a friend a message about the band U2 via Messenger on his phone.

Theo watches a couple of minutes the start of a French comedy video, Burger Quiz, on YouTube.

Theo sends a WhatsApp message to his step-sister in Belgium. It was a reply to an earlier message from Emma, and it had a kiss emoji with one word in French: “Merci”.

The last registered time of use of Theo’s WhatsApp account.

The last signal from his mobile phone is detected in the Cape Byron vicinity.

Theo was due to check out of his hostel and take a Greyhound bus to Sydney but did not do so.

Theo’s mum, Vinciane Delforge, sends a message to Lisa Hayez and J-P, concerned because Theo has not responded to her messages and has fallen silent online for six days. Lisa can’t reach Theo on his phone either. She calls Greyhound Busses and finds out he didn’t take the trip to Sydney that he booked earlier. Lisa posts on Backpackers groups missing info with photos of Théo. J-P finds out that Theo’s last transactions were at Cheeky Monkey’s ByronBay and that he paid for accommodation at WakeUp! hostel. Lisa calls the hostel and finds out that he didn’t check out on Monday 3rd  of June and that his belongings including his passport had been left at his hostel. Hostel and family report him missing.

A local volunteer search effort begins in Byron, organised by Theo’s cousins Lisa and Michael, via Facebook.

Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter conducts a coastal search for Theo.

Police conduct a major land, sea and air search in the Byron Bay area with the assistance of rescue officers, the State Emergency Service, a Westpac Lifesaver helicopter and lifesavers. Michael, Lisa & J-P check main street towards the hostel to identify all CCTV that have view on street.

Locals and other backpackers joined in the search for Theo. SES Search in Arakwal National Park from Tallow Beach Car Park along main sand track and Milne Track to beach.

SES crews, the dog squad, lifeguards, local volunteers and police continue to search the Byron Bay headlands, east and north of the town, as well as beaches and swamps.

Laurent Hayez (Théo’s father) arrives in Byron Bay to help search for his son.

Theo's father makes an emotional plea asking Australia to keep looking for his son and vows to stay in the country until he is found. He says he hopes WhatsApp will cooperate with police to decode the messages that Theo last sent - a feat, he says, which could change the course of the search. Police confess they are still 'baffled' by the case and are keeping all lines of inquiry open.
Homicide detectives from Sydney join in on the search for Theo.

Police divers join the search, launching from The Pass and focusing their efforts around the Cape Byron headland. Detectives use drones and police dogs with volunteers scouring nearby bushland. Brunswick Valley Rescue Squad join efforts in Byron Bay as the search continues.

Vinciane (Théo’s mum) arrives in Byron Bay.
The family receive demand for ransom via Messenger. There will be several of those during the following months, but none appear to be genuine!

The family and volunteers setup of theFacebook page “Looking For Théo Hayez”

Belgian Police Phillipe Pierrard (Missing Person Unit) and 2 Federal police officers from Hal-Vilvoorde arrive in Byron Bay.

Police rescue team’s abseilers search cliffs around the Lighthouse.

NSW Police announce the full-scale search for Theo has been called off, but investigations are ongoing.

Briefing at Byron Bay Police with investigators, Belgian Police and family: it is understood from this meeting that the police believe the most likely scenario is the accident on the cliffs of the cape!
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Belgian Police leave Australia and return to Belgium.

Volunteers continuing the search for Theo find a grey Puma cap in the bushland near Tallow Beach. The cap has familiar wear and tear on the brim, and the position precisely matches one of Théo’s last known GPS locations.

Theo's father and mother fly back home.

the Australian police informs the family that, at that stage three out of the four swabs returned from the lab without any DNA. If the fourth also returned no result, they would carry out other tests.

Two dogs from “Sydney Search Dogs”, trained to detect human remains, scour the rugged terrain around Cape Byron Lighthouse after being called in by the Byron Bay volunteers.

Laurent Hayez comes back to Byron for a meeting with the police but leaves for Belgium shortly after.

The Byron Bay volunteers organise “Light The Night”, a ceremony for Théo on the beach in Byron Bay. Lisa, Michael, J-P and his family are present to witness this emotional tribute.

Police announce they have referred the disappearance of Theo to the NSW Coroner.

VR Walkthrough

Release of Episode 1 of the Podcast “The Lighthouse”. 6 episodes will be released until further development.