EXCLUSIVE
When Lilie James turned up to see her old school friend Kristina at a clifftop home with her new boyfriend, Paul Thijssen, they seemed like any other young couple.
Just three weeks after this visit, Thijssen would murder the beautiful 23-year-old water polo instructor, before ending his own life not far from Kristina’s house in Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east.
Ms James and Thijssen had met at St Andrew’s Cathedral School and had been dating for about five weeks.
Kristina’s father told Daily Mail there wasn’t any signs of trouble when they dropped in to catch up with his daughter for what he described as a ‘ten-minute chat’.
That house is on the street above Diamond Bay Reserve and has incredible views over the Pacific.
Lilie James will be farewelled at a special celebration of her life attended by family, friends, students and others to remember ‘our treasured and dearly loved Lilie’
View from the family home where Thijssen dropped in with Lilie on the clifftop with multimillion dollar houses and panoramic views over the the ocean, which may have given Thijssen the idea to return there in his final hours
Yet in a chilling turn of events, CCTV cameras at the same home captured the Dutch-born hockey coach again walking past the house three weeks after his initial visit as he looked to dispose the weapon he had used to murdered Ms James.
This footage shows him arriving in the street in a borrowed white Lexus at 8.47pm, an hour after Ms James was killed and dumped in the indoor gym with massive head injuries. Thijssen drives to the to end of the street and at 9.04pm can be seen walking back up the street before dumping the hammer he used to kill her.
Thijssen then returns to his car and sits there for two hours, calling triple-0 just before midnight to report his crimes.
But at 5am on October 25, Kristina’s father said they could never possibly have suspected the helicopters above their home or the sirens on the street were for Thijssen.
Thijssen walking past Kristina’s family home on the evening he murdered Lilie, dumped the weapon and then fell to his death
But now, weeks later, Kristina’s family believe that little stop at their home on the scenic and windswept bluff with panoramic ocean views gave Thijssen the idea of returning there after carrying out his heinous crime.
Emergency services arrived outside the home because that’s where he called triple-0 just before midnight to say Lilie’s body was in the school gym.
After discovering her body, the phone call was traced, but Thijssen had vanished.
Police Air Wing returned at dawn to search the sea by helicopter, Diamond Bay Reserve and rocks below.
Caught on the family home’s driveway CCTV, Thijssen drives past at 8.47pm before dumping the murder weapon and then eventually taking his own life
After Ms James was found with serious head wounds late on Wednesday night, police looked at CCTV filmed from inside St Andrew’s School.
On the footage, Thijssen could be seen following Ms James into a gym bathroom at the school on Wednesday around 7pm.
The footage then captures Thijssen leaving the area over an hour later, while Ms James never emerges from the bathroom.
Thijssen alerted police around four hours later. When police arrived there they found the Lexus, a backpack, some of his belongings and the alleged murder weapon.
A day-long search at Vaucluse did not locate Thijssen who, police still wanted to speak to about Ms James.
Then, early on Friday morning, tradesmen working on the boardwalk being constructed on the cliff edges above Diamond Bay spotted an object wedged in the rocks below being pounded by waves.
Paul Thijssen, above with his father Stef was cremated two weeks after murdering Lilie and falling to his death from the Vaucluse clifftop
Lilie James (left, graduating from school) dropped in to see her friend Kristina (right) while in the company of Paul Thijssen about three weeks before Thijssen murdered her and was captured on CCTV from Kristina’s house
It was Thijssen’s body. Police and rescue services tried to retrieve the remains by jet ski and boat, eventually recovering the body and carrying it up by a path to the road level.
The remains were taken to a mortuary and later identified as being Thijssen’s via medical records from the Netherlands, where he was born and lived before moving to in 2015 and attending St Andrew’s school for years 10-12.
Thijssen’s parents, Esther and Stef, reportedly made the decision not to repatriate the remains of their only son back to Europe and Daily Mail exclusively revealed he was cremated on November 8.
It is unclear if anyone including his parents attended the service. Thijssen’s ashes remained uncollected at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Gardens this week.
Ms James will be farewelled at a special celebration of her life attended by family, friends, students and others to remember ‘our treasured and dearly loved Lilie James, whose joy was palpable, smile infectious and service to her community remarkable’.
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