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Australian Story - Season 31 Episode 09 Lost Part 1 Celine Cremer
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00:15Hello. The disappearance three years ago of a young Belgian bushwalker in the Tasmanian
00:21wilderness made headlines around the world. When 31-year-old Celine Cremer didn't return
00:28from what was meant to be a short hike, it set off a chain of events that took years to
00:33reach
00:33resolution. After the official search ended without luck, her best friend refused to give
00:40up and turned to a group of motley strangers for help. The more you get to know the Tasmanian
00:52wilderness, the more you begin to respect it. Because you do realise that things can happen
00:59in a heartbeat, you know. A good experience can turn sour so quickly.
01:05There are fears for a Belgian tourist missing in Tasmania who was last seen 11 days ago.
01:13It was just waiting for news. Never I expected to be still looking for her after two years
01:21and a half. Not knowing, I think, is the worst thing that a family could live.
01:39When people go missing, the community feels it. People here in Tasmania and all over the
01:46country want to do something to help. We've got 27 volunteers here today, all over Tasmania
01:55and Cremetta State. So, it's a little bit the last chance that could possibly allow us to
02:04be able to put a term to these questions without answers.
02:11I know that this is a needle in the haystack.
02:14You see that? Yeah, okay.
02:16Come over.
02:17Me?
02:18Yes.
02:18Hi, what's up?
02:19I've lost your words.
02:22She's got to be up there somewhere and it's just going to take the right person
02:25looking under the right log and it's going to be solved.
02:30You're not going to believe it.
02:32Someone called Ken.
02:33And everyone else, Connor, get away.
02:52My sister, I'm on road trip, in the middle of Tasmania. I don't always have a network.
02:57I drive and I try to walk.
03:01CĂ©line didn't want to live here in Belgium.
03:04It was too bad for her, not enough sun.
03:07It was really a burlague of necks.
03:10She spent a lot of time abroad.
03:12I take the ferry the 21st of July.
03:16So, I'll have the time to respond better.
03:20For a lot of young people in Europe, Australia is a dream.
03:24I think it's because it's not possible to go far from Europe except on the moon.
03:34I'll come back a day, I'm sure and certain, because I want to show it to someone.
03:39It's beautiful.
03:44Big hug.
03:50She was going to have 30 years old when she was going to Australia.
03:55What's great about the filming in Australia is that it's really not bipolar.
04:01CĂ©line arrived in Australia in June 2022.
04:06Going there by herself was definitely her biggest challenge.
04:11She had an adventurous mind, but was also not really self-confident and would be scared easily.
04:21So, I live in Freshwater.
04:25And here, we arrive in Manly.
04:28And look at me.
04:29Oh, putain.
04:30She stayed in Sydney for about six months, working as a waitress in a hotel.
04:36I love this daily journey to go work.
04:40No bottle, no red light.
04:45I have to gratter the glass on your car.
04:51I could really feel that she felt really free and she was doing better and better and building a lot
04:59of self-confidence.
05:00Le panorama en vous vraiment la chandelle.
05:09And then, she did a world trip from Sydney to Tasmania.
05:18Coles Bay, it's one of those places that when you arrive, you don't really want to leave because it's just
05:24a really beautiful way of life.
05:26I think Celine just fell in love with the area and the people.
05:31I worked with her full-time at the restaurant.
05:36Bulldogs!
05:37She's a lot of fun.
05:39Not afraid to like laugh at herself.
05:41Woohoo!
05:43Not shy at all.
05:45Loud but like good loud.
05:47Yeah, like she had this energy that people would just gravitate to her.
05:53Cheers!
05:55Woohoo!
05:57She really loved that place.
05:59So happy she felt in the nature with all those animals.
06:04Yeah.
06:05She was really excited about it.
06:10I met Celine when I was one year old.
06:13One and a half.
06:13At the kindergarten school.
06:21She's always been a bit off track, like she's always been herself, I'd say.
06:29We always shared that together, that we love travel.
06:33And we were meant to meet in Darwin.
06:38She had booked a ferry for the 21st of June to go back to the mainland.
06:43And she would travel the West Coast in the meantime.
06:49Pardon, I'm too far away from you.
06:52So we went to a festival down in Hobart.
06:55Her birthday was soon after that, on June 13th.
06:59So it was a way to celebrate her birthday and also a farewell.
07:04Because she was then planning to continue on with her travels.
07:09And exploring all the places out West.
07:14She was excited to have her own car and go car camping and stuff.
07:19I think it made her feel very self-sufficient and proud of herself, I think.
07:26I left everything, my friends, my apartment.
07:30I live in my car.
07:31And I do the same as I can with the network.
07:33I swear, it's hard.
07:35But I'm tired.
07:37I knew we'd keep in touch.
07:38But I also knew that she was busy hiking and exploring.
07:43So I didn't really know when to expect to hear from her again.
08:01I bought my flight tickets for Darwin on the 20th of June.
08:07So I was super excited to share the news with her that it was official now that I was going
08:13to meet her.
08:14But I didn't get through.
08:18I sent messages and I didn't have any answers.
08:24So after 3-4 days, I started to get frustrated.
08:28So I tried to call her and she didn't answer.
08:32After 2 days, eventually, I called our friends in Sydney because she hadn't connected to any social.
08:40And I asked him to call her on her phone.
08:44He told me that she was left on the voicemail, but not to panic too much because Tasmania is wild.
08:52There is a lot of blank spots.
08:55I received a message from Justine saying, hey, I'm looking for Celine.
09:01She's my friend. I haven't heard from her in a while.
09:05And I wasn't alarmed then. I just took a screenshot and sent it to Celine.
09:10Justine m'a contactée en me disant, je n'ai pas de réponse de Céline.
09:15Donc voilà , assez rapidement, je me suis tracassée.
09:20So I was like, okay, let's just call the police better for nothing than for a reason.
09:25And usually, you know, someone's out traveling.
09:28I didn't really think it was that big of a deal.
09:33And then, yeah.
09:36Yeah.
09:37J'avais déjà une...
09:40...a très mauvaise...
09:43...très mauvaise impression.
09:45Et je pensais que, voilĂ , c'Ă©tait quand mĂŞme...
09:48...qu'il y avait quelque chose de très, très grave qui s'était passé.
09:57...
09:57When people are backpacking from other countries, it's probably normal to have a bit of a gap in communications.
10:02We understood that she spoke to her mum on the 16th of June.
10:06And it wasn't until the 26th of June, friends of Celine reported her missing.
10:13Ma première réaction, ça a été le déni.
10:19Il faut attendre pour que l'esprit se rende compte que la formation est réelle.
10:23...
10:26Phone data said that she'd visited Waratah on the 17th of June.
10:31Waratah is a small town on the western fringes of Tasmania.
10:37It's really the kind of first town you get to where you're exploring the west coast or, like, the wild
10:42west.
10:45We have a population of about 230-odd.
10:49It's very much of a tourist town.
10:52When you see the place under snow, you think it's out of a painted postcard.
11:00There's mining industry around the town and also some pretty significant landmarks for people to visit and see, like Philosopher
11:07Falls.
11:11We found Celine's car at the Philosopher Falls car park on the 27th.
11:16There was a lot of camping gear or hiking gear in her car, which kind of told us that she
11:21perhaps wasn't prepared for an overnight stay, that she'd gone for a short walk.
11:26That's when I started to realize something was definitely wrong.
11:34We found out that they had found her car parked at Philosopher Falls, so we drove straight to Waratah to
11:44try to figure out what was going on.
11:47We arrived at Philosopher Falls, and the police had it blocked off, and they turned us around.
11:54We head back into town, we went into the roadhouse, and the ladies there showed us CCTV footage of her.
12:05Celine walked in, she was getting gas, she got a latte and a carrot cake, and she was just chatting
12:13with the ladies as she does, just super open, super friendly.
12:20Police are searching for a Belgian tourist who is feared to be missing from a walking track on the state's
12:25west coast.
12:26So the preliminary search obviously focuses on the Philosopher Falls track, so it was clearly the most obvious place where
12:32she'd been.
12:32Wet and cold weather has been hampering the aerial search for the missing tourist.
12:37The weather at that time hindered a lot of the normal procedural things we do, but the SES used ATVs.
12:44We had swift water rescue, so to search the waterfalls.
12:47Even right down to things like metal detectors to search for phones.
12:52Unfortunately, despite all that, there was no further sign of Celine discovered.
12:58Police hold grave concerns for missing Belgian tourist Celine Cremere,
13:02saying it's unlikely she survived Tasmania's unforgiving wilderness.
13:10I didn't believe she could get lost because, like, nowadays, with all the technology and things, it was impossible.
13:18I had a lot of questions.
13:20So after two weeks, my friend Gabrielle and myself travelled to Tasmania to meet with the police and see what
13:29was happening.
13:30We were pretty sure, at this stage, that we would bring Celine back with us.
13:37CĂ©line, I'm a friend of mine since I was a kid.
13:40For me, it's normal to understand what happened, because friends are not only for the holidays.
13:46It's not only for the FED.
13:48Arian signed a paper for the police to talk to me as a close family member.
13:54They replied to all of my questions.
13:56They showed me what they were doing, how they were investigating.
14:05The initial search effort went from the 26th of June right through to the 10th of July, and that was
14:11the decision to suspend the search formally.
14:13It's not an easy decision. It's certainly not one that anyone involved takes lightly.
14:17Since the beginning, I knew that my daughter has passed away.
14:26And I told the Tasmanian police that they don't have to, in French we say, to put gloves to you.
14:35I don't know if it's the same expression in English, but I was sure that my daughter has passed away.
14:43I had passed away.
14:45We don't actually ever say, no, this is closed.
14:48A missing person remains open, and if we get new information or there's new technologies or something, we'll always go
14:53back and research, and that's what happened.
14:55Authorities have reactivated the search for Belgian tourist Celine Cremere.
15:01Once we had the more specific data on where the phone last talked to the satellite, we actually utilised Nick
15:08Cadaver Dog to help out at that point as well.
15:11We searched the area for an additional three days, but again, sadly, no further signs of Celine were located.
15:19There was nothing credible to suggest anything other than Celine, unfortunately, made a mistake and met, sadly, with a tragic
15:29end simply through misadventure.
15:35When the search ended, Justine kept going.
15:40She had one goal in mind, and that was to find her best friend.
15:45I understood the police had to stop searching, but it was, of course, a bit frustrating because she's my friend
15:55and I want her to be found.
15:56And that's the reason why we continued on our own.
16:07That's also the reason why I decided to move to Tasmania.
16:11I needed answers. It's not just that I wanted it, I needed some answers, and I still need a closure.
16:21I stayed in Coles Bay for a bit more than six months, getting to know a bit more the town
16:27and spending time with her friends.
16:31She had relentless determination to find her friend, and she was not going to stop.
16:38She was just bombarded, just questions after questions.
16:42She was trying anything and everything from every angle.
16:53I was trying to find some people who could actually help me with the investigation.
17:03Justine asked if I would be interested in reviewing their case after she saw me investigating the disappearance of Theo
17:10Hayes in Byron Bay.
17:12There was a lot of information in Selene's case that needed to be examined in more depth.
17:19I contacted Ken during Tasmanian winter 2024.
17:25He was happy to investigate on Selene's case, free of charge.
17:32I do these special projects that are helping people.
17:36The police investigations are exhausted, and they've really got nowhere else to turn.
17:41Ken was engaged by Ariane to help search once we'd formally suspended it.
17:45And we have certainly been collaborating with Ken to share information.
17:50I conducted a very detailed, forensic-type study of her emails, the photographs.
17:57Most importantly, her map data.
17:59And that was the thing that I was really focused on, because that map data had all of her last
18:05known GPS coordinates.
18:07The GPS data is actually created by location services being switched on inside Selene's Gmail account.
18:19We know she was in the southwest driving, and then she came inland through several small towns, and she arrived
18:28at Waratah around lunchtime on June 17.
18:33We know that when she got to Waratah, she was by herself because she was captured on CCTV in the
18:38roadhouse.
18:39She was only literally there for a few minutes.
18:42And I think that was the point that she probably made a decision to go out and have a look
18:48at the Philosopher Falls, which was just located outside of town.
18:58I noticed that there was a search underway for a missing bushwalker, and I was quite upset when I realised
19:04that they hadn't had any luck finding her.
19:07It's the type of mystery where it's, like, one step away from being solved.
19:13And that's why I took it on.
19:16So I've just gotten to the Philosopher's Falls car park.
19:19This spot here where I've left my car was exactly where Selene parked her car on the 17th of June,
19:262023, at 1.59pm.
19:29I'm a sixth generation Tasmanian, a YouTuber and adventurer.
19:34My YouTube channel is mainly focused on the wilds of Tasmania.
19:40Could be gold prospecting or mysteries, historical stuff.
19:45She was in her car for 19 minutes exactly because the next GPS point was at 2.18 at the
19:51start of the track.
19:55The Philosopher Falls track in the beginning is very open and you've got beautiful forests on either side of you.
20:03It's definitely got, like, a magical aspect that draws you in to explore it.
20:10So you walk for, say, 15 minutes, you go down a hill, you cross over the Arthur River on a
20:17bridge.
20:20And then you're on the old water race.
20:23The water race is a man-made excavation from the old miners, which generally follows around the contour of a
20:31hill.
20:32It's a bit of a footpath.
20:35You follow this for some distance and you'll get to the steps that lead down to the right.
20:40And this is where Philosopher's Falls are, at the bottom of the steps.
20:45Now, at the time that Saleem weren't missing, they weren't signed.
20:49I think what's happened is she had a look at the waterfalls, then she's come back up the stairs.
20:56Obviously, on her phone, she's seen the magnet dam, she's seen the walking trail.
21:01Because she's curious, instead of going left back to the car, she's gone right.
21:10So this is all very new signage. None of this stuff was here when Saleem did her walk.
21:18Saleem chose to continue along the abandoned water race and explore.
21:24It's a well-established trail in the beginning.
21:27But after about 500 metres to 800 metres, it starts to become less and less visible.
21:35So these GPS coordinates here at 3.32pm indicate that Saleem had walked a couple of kilometres away over near
21:43Magnet Dam.
21:45Apparently, it started raining at around 3pm.
21:48So that could have been a dark cloud that came in and kind of signalled to Saleem,
21:53Oh, it's getting dark now. It's starting to rain. I better start making my way back to the car.
22:01I think that's when she pulled out the Google Maps and realised that there is no data on Google Maps
22:09as to the track that she's on.
22:11She's just this blue dot on a data-less screen.
22:16There's the Magnet Dam and there's the Philosopher's Falls logo.
22:21And there's also a car park logo, but they're kilometres away from where she is.
22:26She turns, sudden right, and she suddenly goes off the trail and up the hill.
22:34Rather than continue on this way, she's gone up there.
22:38And the only reason that she would do that is because, at this point, it appears that you're going away
22:47from Philosopher's Falls.
22:50But if you go up that way, you head towards Philosopher's Falls and then back to the car.
23:01She was looking for the most direct route to get back to that car park as soon as possible because
23:07it was getting dark.
23:09She was really thinking, I've got to get out of here.
23:11This level of darkness would be very similar for Saleem.
23:17Heading up the hill, I think there's probably maybe 20 GPS points.
23:21So you can actually follow minute by minute and calculate the distance and how far she was moving up that
23:28hill.
23:29What you can see here is the last ping that Saleem's phone recorded at 4.18pm on June 17.
23:37And you can see where she was in relation to the car park.
23:41It's about two kilometres away as the crow flies.
23:44We don't have any other GPS data because from that point onwards, that phone was no longer in range.
23:56Now, I know that the emergency services have done a gridded metal detect at the site of Saleem's last GPS
24:05points.
24:08But they didn't find anything.
24:13On the night that Saleem went up the hill, she could have dropped her phone somewhere and was unable to
24:20retrieve it.
24:21Or she had her phone on her and seeked shelter as it got dark.
24:27She could have been walking unaided in the days to follow or sadly perished that night.
24:35It was down close to zero degrees.
24:38There was enough rain to certainly make everything very wet.
24:43There is a chance she could have got changed, but this was the last known clothing that we have seen
24:48her wearing.
24:49So we believe she's wearing reasonably warm clothes, but I don't think enough clothing to withstand freezing temperatures would be
25:01a horrible situation to be in.
25:07There's all sorts of crazy conspiracies about what happened to Saleem.
25:11One is that someone followed her in to the waterfalls and abducted her, I guess.
25:19Well, if that happened, they were smart enough to unlock her phone, create a trail up the hill and make
25:26it look like it happened just before sunset.
25:28It's so unlikely that you can't give her credit.
25:32The suggestion of our play is nothing more than speculation.
25:36There is strong circumstantial evidence that Saleem got lost and the risk of her having an accident was very high
25:44once it got dark and cold and the panic set in.
25:48My biggest fear was that Saleem might have been kept somewhere and suffering.
25:53So, yeah, I really wanted to make sure that wasn't the case and Ken helped me in that way.
26:03I think, since the beginning, that it was an accident.
26:08I say, as we say in French, that it's a fault. It's a fault. It's not a chance.
26:15In February 2025, I told Gabriel that I felt psychologically exhausted and he told me that he would take the
26:26lead on it and help me as much as he could.
26:30The baddest of the investigation was that the participants were looking for each other in their quest to share the
26:40information.
26:42The searches have been pretty thorough. The problem is you're working with vegetation that's very thick and there's a lot
26:49of kilometres that need to be done in order to accurately say that it's been searched and that just hasn't
26:56happened.
26:57So I said, we need a big group of professionals to come in here and to do a coordinated search.
27:03It's going to take will, it's going to take resources, proper mapping to do it properly.
27:10The search was planned for December and I thought what I can do with my YouTube channel is put a
27:16call out to try to get some of the best walkers in Tassie or wherever around the mainland to come
27:21and help.
27:22Celine's friends and family have been busy fundraising and organising a multi-day search for December.
27:28If you're capable and interested in helping to cover more area, your help would be greatly appreciated.
27:34The video had maybe 800,000 views or something within a couple of weeks, like it went crazy.
27:41We received probably more than 200 mails in the next day after he released the video.
27:51Unfortunately, that started causing a lot of weekend worries coming out and doing solo searches.
27:59And the town were concerned that they would have another one to go and search for.
28:06I just needed to reassure everybody that it's going to be handled by professionals.
28:10So everything's going to be done in a really careful and sensitive manner.
28:15I just want to thank everyone firstly for coming.
28:19I said the only way we can do it is to make sure we vet all the volunteers that are
28:24putting their hands up and we individually select them based on our criteria.
28:29We have to assure the police that we're not going to put people at risk.
28:33While the police aren't involved in this search and we're not coordinating it in any way, we're actually providing, you
28:40know, some expert forensic advice.
28:41Obviously, if you find something, three-step photographs with the ruler in next to it, we need you obviously to
28:48record where it is.
29:05I wish you luck. I am personally and professionally invested in this and it would be good to get some
29:11answers.
29:13It's not about who gets to find Celine, it's about everyone bending together and hopefully we can solve this case
29:21and we can get the closure.
29:23Without closure then this mystery just continues forever.
29:33I was a straggler and I just stepped over and I didn't even finish that step and I just looked
29:39down where my boot was going and there was a prize.
29:45I was like, how is it possible? It's incredible. For me it was a miracle.
29:55Miracle.
29:57A la mémoire de Céline.
29:59A la mémoire de Céline.
30:25A la mémoire de Céline.
30:29Rabi Bocca.
30:31uz
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