The disturbing discovery detectives made as they hunted for the murder weapon that bludgeoned Lilie James to death in a school bathroom

When police found Lilie Jamess body in a school bathroom, there was so much blood they couldnt immediately identify her.

The 21-year-old water polo coach lay where her killer had stricken her with multiple blunt force injuries to her head and neck, the size and shape of which swiftly led police to identifying her murder weapon as a hammer. 

It would be the search for the actual murder weapon that would lead detectives to an extraordinary discovery on the campus of St Andrews Cathedral School where Ms James was slain by killer Paul Thijssen on October 25, 2023.

At first the search was for Ms James, after the extensive injuries to her face, fake tan and her hair blackened with blood made police think the body in the bathroom might have been an Asian woman, not a blonde Caucasian.

The 25 injuries to Ms James head and neck were circular, semi-circular or v-shaped and police saw they had clearly been caused by many more than 25 hammer blows.

As investigators tried to confirm Ms James was the murder victim at the school, and not taken captive by Thijssen, her obsessive, spurned boyfriend, the search for the murder weapon hammer also began.

With the school closed for two days, after detectives ascertained that Thijssen had left Lilies body there and driven to Vaucluse where he jumped off the cliff, police began scouring the SACS campus.

With two main multi-storey buildings housing the junior and middle schools, and the senior college catering for a total of 1450 students, there was much ground to search.

Paul Thijssen in Mitre 10 two days before the murder buying a hammer which he would hide back at St Andrews school, but ultimately choosing a different hammer as the murder weapon

Lilie James, 21, did not stand a chance of survival in the diabolical plan her narcissistic controlling ex Paul Thijssen practised in the hours leading to her tragic murder

Police say Thijssen used a Supatool 30cm black handled hammer with a 26-27mmm ball like this one but despite finding 76 hammers at St Andrews, they never found the murder weapon

Paul Thijssen stands outside the bathroom with his backpack on for two minutes (above left) before going in with the hammer. Thijssen doing one of his practise runs (above right) 

Ms James inquest was told this week that, remarkably, police found a total of 76 different hammers at SACS. 

Every one of the 76 hammers would have to be examined and compared with the evidence from Lilie James post mortem. But as Counsel Assisting the inquest, Jennifer Single, said: None appeared to match the one [Thijssen] was wielding.

The hunt for the murder weapon would continue outside the school grounds.  

As well as CCTV video inside the school showing Thijssen holding the hammer, while rehearsing the murder outside the bathrooms near the school gym, forensic investigators had also measured and assessed Ms James wounds.

Their precise examination led them to believe that Thijssen used a hammer with a 26-27mm face or ball.

Two days before the murder, Thijssen had been captured at 2.41pm at Mitre 10 hardware store in York Street, 800m from St Andrews School, buying heavy duty Gorilla-brand duct tape and a red-and-black-handled hammer.

In the footage, he can be seen feeling the weight of different hammers and trying one out by rapping it on the hammer stand.

He then carried the items back to school in a plastic blue and white Mitre 10 bag and placed them in the school storeroom. The bag looked noticeably lighter - or just empty - when he exited the room. 

Detectives outside St Andrews School where they found 76 hammers on campus while searching for the murder weapon used to kill 21-year-old Lilie James

Thijssen tests hammers at Mitre 10 in York Street on the Monday, two days before using a different hammer in the brutal murder of the young woman who ended their relationship 

Lilie was oblivious to the fact that Thijssen had been stalking her for days before the murder, meticulously planning how he would end her young life

St Andrews has unveiled a wreath (above) made from the ribbons on the flowers left at the school after her death 

After detectives obtained the CCTV and the receipt for the items from Mitre 10, they compared dimensions of the model of hammer Thijssen bought to Lilies post mortem results.

They didnt match. Despite Thijssen buying the hammer and storing it at the school as part of his diabolical murder plan to trap and kill, he changed his mind before the fatal assault.

On the day of the murder, Thijssen told separate lies to two different people: that he needed to go home to his semi-detached share house in Sydneys east, either to collect a pair of after-work trousers, or a dress shirt.

He took the light rail to Kensington, and picked up the GoGet car he had on hire for three days, returning to St Andrews at 4.32pm.

The inquest heard this week that police believe Thijssen went home to steal his flatmates hammer,  a 30cm-long, black-handled, silver hammer with a 26-27mm ball from a Supatool 105 piece tool bag kit, borrowed from his flatmates mother. 

Thijssen went home to Kensington on the afternoon of the murder and took a 30cm hammer from flatmate Matthews 105 Supatool kit (above, a similar kit) and took it back to school

Thijssens room in the semi-detached share house he lived in with two flatmates including the one whose hammer he stole to use as the murder weapon

Paul Thijssen is believed to have thrown the murder weapon into the ocean, along with his phone and Lilies, when he jumped to his death at Diamond Bay Reserve. Above, his body is recovered two days later

Paul did not go home to get his dress pants and top. Paul went home to collect the hammer he used in the attack, the Coroners Court was told.

[Flatmate] Matthew recalled Paul used the hammer to dismantle and put back his bed together after the flatmates moved from Zetland.

On CCTV in the hours leading up to the murder, Thijssen can be seen pulling a black-handled hammer from his backpack in practice runs of the murder.

His final appearance with the hammer, believed to be Matthews, is when Lilie returns to the school and is lured to the disabled toilet on Level SG and enters at 7.14pm.

Thijssen then races in with his backpack to stand outside the toilet, pulls the hammer from the pack and then, at precisely 7.16pm, goes in.

Police believe that after murdering Lilie, Thijssen took her phone along with the hammer in his backpack and his iPhone 14, and drove to Diamond Bay Reserve at Vaucluse.

Around midnight, he jumped off, taking his own life. Either he threw the phones and the hammer off the edge or took them with him when he jumped.

The black-handled Supatool hammer has never been located. 

Following the three-day inquest, St Andrews School unveiled a wreath made from the ribbons on the flowers left at the school after her death. 

Posting a photo on its Facebook site of the wreath, the school said it continues to stand with the James family in their grief over the loss of Lilie and acknowledges the incredible courage they have shown throughout the coronial Inquest. 

Our community remains utterly heartbroken by what has happened. This has not diminished with time.