news

Five years since Warriena Wright's death, here's what Gable Tostee's life looks like now.

 

In 2014, Gold Coast carpet layer Gable Tostee was charged with the murder of his Tinder date, Warriena Wright. Two years later, he was found not guilty.

Now, under his new name of Eric Thomas, he has a new profile on Tinder.

This is what’s been happening over the past five years.

What did Gable Tostee do?

On August 7, 2014, Tostee met up with Warriena Wright for a date. The two had matched on Tinder a week earlier. Wright was an animal lover from New Zealand, and was due to return home in a few days.

“You look delicious,” Tostee had told Wright. “I want to do dirty things to you.”

The two met up near Tostee’s 14th floor Surfers Paradise apartment. They drank Tostee’s homemade alcohol and had sex. Tostee, who had previously admitted he was “somewhat obsessed with recording everything”, recorded a lot of what happened that night.

At about 1.30am, Tostee can be heard, on a recording, saying, “I don’t like getting beaten up.” Later, he added, “I should have never given you so much to drink.”

Wright’s blood alcohol level was measured as being 0.156 when she died.

Wright threw ornamental rocks around the apartment, and Tostee can be heard saying, “This is f***ing bullshit. You are lucky I haven’t chucked you off my balcony, you goddamn psycho little bitch.”

Tostee claims what happened next was that Wright tried to hit him with part of a telescope and he restrained her. She can be heard screaming, “No!” repeatedly.

Watch: Gable Tostee’s interview with 60 Minutes. Post continues after video. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Wright begged, “Just let me go home,” and Tostee replied, “I would, but you’ve been a bad girl.”

He pushed her out on the balcony and locked the door. Wright tried to climb down to the apartment below, and fell 14 floors to her death.

Tostee’s first reaction was to ring his lawyer, who didn’t pick up. He then went for a walk, ordered pizza and finally rang his father, telling him, “I might have a bit of a situation.”

Within weeks, Tostee was charged with Wright’s murder. He was released on bail and banned from using dating apps.

When the case went to trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane in October 2016, the Crown argued that Tostee had intimidated Wright so much that she had tried to escape by climbing over the balcony. However, Tostee’s lawyer said he had just been trying to stop further attacks when he locked Wright outside, and he shouldn’t have to bear criminal responsibility for her decision to try to climb down.

The jury acquitted Tostee of murder and manslaughter. Within weeks, he was paid a six-figure sum to do an interview with 60 Minutes.

What happened after Tostee was found not guilty?

After being acquitted, Tostee changed his name to Eric Thomas. In an interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin in May 2017, he said he’d always been meaning to change it because it “wasn’t practical”.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the interview, he’d explained that he’d moved back home with his parents and was studying. He said the first thing he wanted to do after the trial was to give his condolences to Wright’s parents.

“But what we heard back was that they didn’t want to hear from me, so I just respected that and there is nothing much you can do – that’s their choice.”

Tostee said he had an account on Tinder again.

“I’ve met a couple of girls since but it’s not like the good old days — I barely had a thumb left.”

Recently, Tostee has been active on social media under his new name.

Gable Tostee now
Recently, Tostee has been active on social media under his new name, Eric Thomas. Image: Facebook.
ADVERTISEMENT

In January this year, he posed this question on Facebook: “If a man went to a woman’s apartment, got himself blind drunk, became aggressive without any provocation and started violently attacking her, verbally abusing her, throwing her things at her, refused to leave and then attacked her with a piece of metal and then climbed off her 14th floor balcony after she managed to lock him outside in desperation, would she be charged with murder? Would she be dragged through trial, vilified, shamed and defamed even if fully acquitted? I don’t think so.”

He said “victim blaming” was “hardcoded into the fembot brain”.

“They shout it out involuntarily whenever they detect the slightest suggestion that a female might be responsible for her own actions.”

After the Christchurch terrorist attacks in March, Tostee posted a photo of New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern wearing a hijab and wrote, “It’s no secret that the left fetishises Islam and will use any opportunity to push the mass migration agenda.”

Not long afterwards, he posted a photo of himself holding a gun at a shooting range, captioning it, “Training for the zombie apocalypse.”

What is Tostee doing now?

On Wednesday this week, Tostee posted on his Facebook page, “Guise [sic] what do you all think of my Tinder profile?”

Gable Tostee now
Eric Thomas' new Tinder profile. Image: Facebook.
ADVERTISEMENT

The Tinder profile is headed “Eric, 33” and describes him as “Proud single mum (might also be pregnant, dunno), here to find my princess.” He adds that he is looking for “adventure, friends, laughter, a bunch of other generic sh*t” but is “definitely not here for validation or attention, not looking for a one-night stand (but will probably take one anyway), not here just to promote my insta”.

On Facebook, where Tostee asked for thoughts on his Tinder profile, people have posted, “A date with you is to die for,” and, “Needs more balcony.”

In January this year, The Courier Mail reported that the Coroner, James McDougall, was still investigating Wright’s death and a coronial hearing was still a possibility.


Sign up for the "Mamamia Daily" newsletter. Your morning hit of the top news stories, to be consumed with a coffee in hand.