Community gathering to commemorate Simone Strobel death

A COMMUNITY gathering has been planned to commemorate 20-years since the death of German backpacker Simone Strobel at Lismore.

It will be a short service held at The Quad on Tuesday, February 11 at 6pm.

The Strobel death rocked the community when her body was found concealed under palm fronds near a Lismore caravan park in 2005.

She was 25 years old and travelling around Australia at the time.

Jenny Dowell was a Lismore City councillor in 2005 and went on to become mayor.

She is organising the Remembering Simone event with support from Strobel’s family in Germany.

“We felt it was an important date to note with a small gathering,” Ms Dowell said.

“It will just be for an hour and a time for reflection more than anything.

“The event will send a message to her family that we have not forgotten Simone.”

Residents have already made banners and are encouraged to bring flowers on the night.

There will be a minute’s silence with a message from the family, while a poem will be delivered.

The poem has already been inscribed on a memorial bench near the caravan park.

Artificial sunflowers and a candle will be set up for the memorial.

Additional flowers will be taken to the memorial bench following the event.

Ms Dowell said people in Lismore still have plenty of questions about what happened 20 years ago.

“It was awful at the time to think this young girl on an adventure of a lifetime died in Lismore,” she said.

“It’s something that the community has never forgotten, we certainly won’t anytime soon.”