'The community is baffled': Search teams hand out photos of missing backpacker’s phone

Updated 19 June 2019 at 4:33 pm

An intensified search will resume for a missing Belgian backpacker with abseilers and search dogs set to join in, 20 days after the teenager vanished in Byron Bay.

Theo Hayez, 18, was last seen leaving the holiday town's Cheeky Monkey's bar about 11pm on May 31.

Police, State Emergency Service volunteers and members of the public have been searching for Theo for 10 days, but there's been no sign of him so far.

Searchers on Thursday will be joined by local abseiling team Brunswick Valley Volunteer Rescue Association, sniffer dogs, divers and drones as efforts to find Theo continue.

Photo of Theo Hayez who searchers have been trying to find for 10 days. — The search for Mr Hayez has lasted 10 days but there's been no sign of him at all. Source: Source: Facebook/Theo Hayez

The abseiling team will focus their efforts on Byron Bay's cliff tops.

Search teams have been handing out photos of Theo's phone – a purple Oppo device – a NSW spokesman told AAP.

The last 'ping' from Theo's phone was recorded on June 1 in the area around the Cape Byron Lighthouse.

Theo's distraught father Laurent made an emotional plea for help on Monday, begging encrypted chat service WhatsApp to grant police access to his son's final known conversations.

Photo of Theo Hayez who was last seen leaving Cheeky Monkey's bar about 11pm on May 31. — Mr Hayez was last seen leaving Cheeky Monkey's bar about 11pm on May 31. Source: Facebook/Theo Hayez

The company has provided what information they can but are unable to access the content of the messages, AAP understands.

Belgian police are also working in Europe to speak with people Theo may have contacted in his final known hours.

Alongside official search efforts, a group of concerned members of the community are also pitching in to help find Theo.

Search teams have been handing out photos of Theo's phone – a purple Oppo device, believed to be similar to this one. Source: JB HiFi

Photo of Theo Hayez. The Brunswick Valley Volunteer Rescue Association will send in abseilers to join the search for him with sniffer dogs, divers and drones. — The Brunswick Valley Volunteer Rescue Association will send in abseilers to join the search with sniffer dogs, divers and drones. Source: Facebook/Theo Hayez

Searcher Bron Harrison says the group of around 50 people on Wednesday covered an area north of Byron Bay towards Tyagarah.

"It's people in the community who are worried and want to help somehow," she told AAP.

"The community is baffled ... just to disappear off the face of the Earth is incomprehensible."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.