In the space of a few years, Gable Tostee changed from a shy introvert to a self-styled playboy. Then it all went horribly wrong. Look back on one of Queensland’s most intriguing cases, which ended with Tostee being acquitted of murder and manslaughter.

By Kristian Silva

January 4, 2010 was a turning point for Gable Tostee. A self-described loner with no real friends, Tostee turned to the only group he trusted, and declared that he wanted to change.

“Recently I have decided that enough is enough and I need to start socialising properly again, and build up a network of friends,” he wrote.

“There are few things that feel better than connecting with other people, and I have had virtually none of that for half a decade.”

Tostee may have felt out of place in the real world, but under the pseudonym of “Balcony Brah” and “G T”, the Gold Coaster was right at home on the bodybuilding.com Misc. forum — a male-dominated group of knockabout bodybuilding enthusiasts whose conversations ranged from the mundane to the salacious.

Tostee was a prominent personality of the forum. Initially, he sought tips on bodybuilding supplements before conversations branched out to things like the economy and philosophy. He kept a video diary while trying to adopt a rhino beetle as a pet, and it soon became part of Misc folklore.

Five years earlier, Tostee and several school friends were caught up in a Schoolies fake ID racket that landed them in court. It was an experience that caused Tostee to withdraw socially. Gifted although awkward in person, he worked at his dad’s carpet business and was out of sight, alongside older colleagues he struggled to relate to.

Tostee explained to his fellow “Miscers” that he “had to cut off contact with literally all my friends and basically disappear”.

“It pretty much goes without saying that I haven’t really had much contact with women over that period either, which is one of the worst things about it,” he wrote.

With the encouragement and advice of the Miscers, Tostee would make a series of choices that would eventually bring him together with New Zealand tourist Warriena Wright on August 7, 2014.

On their only date, she would plunge to her death from his high-rise apartment balcony.

‘I’m not sure where to begin’

The Misc was Tostee’s first port of call for tips on how to reconnect with old friends — but more importantly for him, how to meet women.

“I would like to start a Facebook but I’m not sure where to begin, and I don’t know many people closely nowadays, and I’m not sure how it all works. Should I simply try and contact pretty much anyone I ever knew and see how it goes?” he asked.

“Any help or experience from anyone who has been in similar situations would be really appreciated.”

Tostee, then 23, began seeking dating advice and feedback on pick-up lines as he started going out and chatting to women.

“Well I got a root the other day,” he soon proclaimed.

Tostee’s obsession with ‘recording everything’

Fast-forward to 2012 and the shy, introverted Gable Tostee was no more. He bragged to his fellow Miscers that he had now “slept with 100 women”. He was now a regular on the Gold Coast nightclub scene where he admitted to drinking heavily and sometimes went out by himself.

“I feel amazing after rooting a hot girl. It’s a huge confidence boost,” he wrote on the Misc.

“One of the main reasons I try to sleep with different girls as often as possible is to improve my own confidence.”

Tostee also revealed his penchant for documenting his conquests. His habit of secretly recording encounters with strangers would later become the pivotal part of evidence at the Warriena Wright trial.

“I have actually kept a written log with dates and names,” he wrote in 2012.

“I’m somewhat obsessed with recording everything. I have motion detection cameras in my house, call recording on my phone, and sometimes even leave my phone on record in my pocket for nights out in case I forget what happens.”

Security footage uploaded by Gable Tostee in 2012 which he alleges shows a woman stealing his wallet. (Youtube)

By 2013, Tostee’s presence on the Coast’s club scene was starting to upset people. He told the Misc he had been banned from several venues, citing unfair treatment from security guards and bar staff.

But he wasn’t deterred. Tostee’s discovery of the dating app Tinder seemed to take his desire to sleep with more women to a whole new level.

Discussion on the Misc degenerated as Tostee, egged on by fellow forum users, posted pictures of women he claimed to have slept with. He posted screenshots of their Tinder conversations and provided Miscers with play-by-play details of his encounters with women, colloquially known on the forum as “sloots”.

“Young sloots are such headcases,” Tostee wrote in one thread.

One of the less explicit Tinder conversations Tostee posted on the Misc. forum.

On occasion, the Misc turned on him. Some labelled Tostee "desperate" when he posted a screenshot of a conversation where a woman had accused him of groping her inappropriately during a date in February 2014. Tostee denied any wrongdoing.

"What kind of stupid sloot meets up with a guy, goes into his bedroom then has no intention of doing anything?" he said.

Arrest after high-speed chase

In his own words, Tostee's behaviour under the influence of alcohol was starting to become dangerous.

A month before the alleged groping incident, a drunken Tostee was involved in a stoush with police after a dispute with a Surfers Paradise tuk-tuk driver over an unpaid fare.

Then on July 27, 2014 — less than two weeks before Warriena Wright's death — Tostee led police on a high-speed chase across the Queensland/NSW border after a music festival. He was four times over the drink-driving limit.

Months later, Tostee was jailed over the incident. In a letter to police in November 2014, he described the driving incident as "the wake-up call I needed".

"I am thankful that it happened before something potentially much worse happened."

However, by that stage, something much worse had already happened.

The fatal date

Gable Tostee's movements mapped with CCTV. (Image: video still/ABC)

Four days after the dangerous driving incident, Brisbane's Supreme Court heard Tostee was on Tinder when he matched with a woman named "Cletus" — the alter ego of New Zealander Warriena Wright.

"You look delicious. I want to do dirty things to you," Tostee told her.

Wright, a 26-year-old visiting Australia from New Zealand, played along. She agreed to swap numbers before the pair met up on the evening of August 7, days before she was set to return home.

Perhaps it was an odd pairing that would never have eventuated in the offline world — Wright, a petite animal lover and daughter of a church deacon, and Tostee, a laddish man mountain who towered above her. The pair seemed to have barely anything in common.

The court heard the pair met near Tostee's place at the Avalon apartments about 8:45pm. Only a short stroll from Cavill Mall, his home was conveniently located, and the view from the 14th-floor balcony was impressive.

During his trial the court heard how the pair took selfies, drank alcohol and eventually had sex. Tostee's diligence to record his dates meant a large part of the night's audio was captured, with conversation between the pair becoming increasingly nonsensical.

At one point, Tostee casually mentioned that falling off his balcony would certainly result in death.

As Wright seemingly became more inebriated, the recording suggested she became unpredictable and aggressive. Police experts would later determine she had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.156 at the time of death.

"I don't like getting beaten up," Tostee told Wright at 1:29am on August 8.

"I should have never given you so much to drink. I thought we were going to have fun?" he said nine minutes later.

Rocks littered the floor and a black purse remained on the ground when police arrived at Tostee's apartment. (Image: Queensland Police Service)

By 2:11am, the situation had become much worse.

The recording captured ornamental rocks being thrown in the apartment by Wright, before Tostee told her she had to leave.

"This is f***ing bullshit...You are lucky I haven't chucked you off my balcony you god damn psycho little bitch," Tostee said.

Six minutes later, Tostee told Wright he would let her leave. However another struggle ensued.

In court, Tostee's defence claimed she tried to use part of a telescope to strike him, and he had responded by restraining her. A choking-like sound was captured on the recording.

Wright began screaming "no" frantically. She screamed it dozens of times, with a terrifying, ear-piercing shriek growing ever louder and more desperate.

In between the screams Tostee could be heard saying: "Why did you try and hit me with that? It's all on recording, you know. It's all being recorded."

Next, the recording captured the sound of the balcony door being opened as Wright repeatedly pleaded: "Just let me go home".

"I would, but you've been a bad girl," Tostee responded angrily.

The door slid shut, and Wright's cries of "just let me go home" were muffled behind the glass. Tostee, who was inside, took several deep breaths, faint screaming was heard in the background.

Wright had tried to lower herself to the apartment below and had fallen to her death.

'I might have a bit of a situation'

The balcony from Gable Tostee's apartment. (Image: Queensland Police Service)

When Tostee realised what had occurred, he grabbed his phone. But records show instead of ringing triple-0, he rang his lawyer instead. The call went unanswered.

With the recording still going, CCTV played in court showed Tostee slipping out a back entrance as emergency services arrived to find Wright's body.

The footage showed Tostee walking around Surfers Paradise before he stopped, ordered a slice of pizza and rang his father.

"I might have a bit of a situation," he began.

Tostee told his father Gray he had been drinking with Wright before she became violent.

"I forced her out on the balcony and I think she might have jumped off," he said.

"Dad, this isn't my fault. I didn't do this. I was giving her my alcohol but she was really violent and um, I like tackled her on my floor inside the building, but I never forced her over the balcony."

'Devastated' Tostee turns to the Misc

Hours later, local media had already become aware of the balcony death.

However unlike many that occur on the Gold Coast, this wasn't looking like an open and shut case of self-harm, police said.

Tostee was nowhere to be seen, until he arrived at a local police station with his lawyer for questioning that afternoon. He chose to maintain his right to silence but agreed to complete forensic testing.

Dressed in the same aqua-coloured shirt he'd worn the previous night, Tostee hunched his 188cm frame meekly in the back of the detectives' car and covered his face as reporters, photographers and cameramen chased the vehicle out of the Surfers Paradise police station and down the road.

Within days, Wright had been formally identified and police had seized Tostee's audio recording from his mobile phone.

Meanwhile, attention on Tostee started to intensify. Discussion on the Misc was in overdrive. Was the guy on the news G T?

In a somewhat incredible twist, Tostee chose to break his silence on the Misc forum three days after Wright's death.

"I've been advised not to go into details but all I will say is that I absolutely did NOT cause this girl to fall and I am devastated about what happened to her," he wrote.

It was to be the first of several online denials Tostee would make, yet during interviews with detectives the man at the centre of the case maintained his right to silence.

Less than a week after the balcony fall, Wright's family arrived on the Gold Coast.

Wright, known as "Rrie" to friends and family, was especially close with her younger sister Marreza. Tears welled in Marreza's eyes as she addressed the media and called for anyone with information to come forward.

Marreza was barely able to speak, her voice only just loud enough to be captured by the array of microphones in front of her.

"Rrie was the most important person in my world. Most of the time we only had each other to rely on," Marreza said.

"She was a very beautiful, cheerful, intelligent person who not only was my sister, but she was my best friend."

Within days, Tostee was taken back into custody and charged with murder.

Detectives who had analysed audio from the night were convinced Tostee had become so angered that Wright feared for her life.

She had no choice, detectives claimed, than to attempt the risky and ultimately unsuccessful manoeuvre to escape him via the balcony.

Audio of Wright's death leaked online

Although charged with murder, Gable Tostee