{"id":78204,"date":"2026-08-23T03:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T03:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78204\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T03:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T03:53:08","slug":"coroner-closes-investigation-into-death-of-missing-man-jayden-penno-tompsett-after-human-remains-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78204\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner closes investigation into death of missing man Jayden Penno-Tompsett after human remains found"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coroner has ruled a skull and skeletal remains found on a cattle station do not offer sufficient evidence to reinvestigate the death of a man in north Queensland.<\/p>\n

Jayden Penno-Tompsett, 22, was last seen on New Year’s Eve, 2017, when he walked away from his travelling companion and their car near Charters Towers, south-west of Townsville.<\/p>\n

The first coronial inquest in 2021<\/a> ruled Mr Penno-Tompsett had likely died from exposure in bushland while under the influence of drugs.<\/p>\n

The inquest was reopened in May this year after Mr Penno-Tompsett’s partial remains were found in October 2025 by farmers<\/a> on a property about 3 kilometres from where he was last seen.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The site near Charters Towers where Jayden Penno-Tompsett is thought to have left his car in 2017. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Mr Penno-Tompsett and his companion were on what was meant to be a three-day road trip from Newcastle in NSW to Cairns for a New Year’s Eve party.<\/p>\n

The 2021 coronial inquiry heard the pair chose to drive to avoid police detecting drugs at the airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It heard Mr Penno-Tompsett had consumed a significant quantity of methamphetamine, estimated to be about 3.6 grams, and had gone without sleep for about four days before disappearing.<\/p>\n

The original inquiry heard Mr Penno-Tompsett became increasingly erratic after realising some of the drugs were missing.<\/p>\n

It heard he walked away from his companion and their car on a 40-degree day, damaging his mobile phone as he walked into bushland.<\/p>\n

Case reopened after skull find<\/p>\n

In a decision handed down on August 21, Northern Coroner Wayne Pennell said there was insufficient evidence to overturn the original inquest’s findings.<\/p>\n

Coroner Pennell said the question of reopening the inquiry rested on whether forensic testing of the bones suggested a different series of events had led to Mr Penno-Tompsett’s death.<\/p>\n

“The question that arises is whether the discovery of Jayden’s remains provides a basis to revisit Coroner Wilson’s finding as to the cause of his death,” he said.<\/p>\n

Coroner Pennell said forensic testing of the bones found no evidence of injury at or around the time of death, and that the findings were not inconsistent with the original inquiry’s conclusion that Mr Penno-Tompsett died from exposure to the elements.<\/p>\n

There were “no injuries that would positively indicate a traumatic cause of death,” his findings said.<\/p>\n

“However, such a cause could not be excluded due to the absence of a substantial portion of the skeleton.”<\/p>\n

Mother’s concerns<\/p>\n

Coroner Pennell said Mr Penno-Tompsett’s mother had emailed the court voicing her concerns about the findings of the first inquiry.<\/p>\n

She told the original inquiry she believed her son met foul play relating to unpaid drug debt.<\/p>\n

‘He was murdered’: Man’s mother tells coronial inquest<\/a><\/p>\n

Jayden Penno-Tompsett’s mother says she believes her son,\u00a0who disappeared in mysterious circumstances while on a boys’ trip in 2017, met with foul play.<\/p>\n

In the first inquiry, Coroner Wilson said there was no evidence to support that theory.<\/p>\n

Coroner Pennell said the mother’s correspondence “did not identify any fresh, compelling, or previously unavailable evidence capable of undermining or materially contradicting Coroner Wilson’s findings”.<\/p>\n

“Having carefully considered the earlier coronial findings, the discovery of Jayden’s remains, the opinions subsequently expressed by the forensic pathologist, and the absence of any fresh, compelling, or contradictory evidence, I am satisfied that there is no proper basis upon which to amend the previous findings, or to reopen the investigation,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“Accordingly, I find there is insufficient justification to alter any finding concerning the facts, circumstances, or events leading to Jayden’s death, including the finding as to the cause of his death.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coroner has ruled a skull and skeletal remains found on a cattle station do not offer sufficient…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,118586,31435,8672,3944,118584,1513,1953,2770,3936,19551,596,118585,118587,67129,22572],"class_list":["post-78204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-charters","tag-coronial","tag-drugs","tag-inquest","tag-jayden","tag-missing","tag-missing-person","tag-murder","tag-newcastle","tag-north-queensland","tag-nsw","tag-penno-tompsett","tag-skull","tag-towers","tag-townsville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}