On 31 March, Queensland Police contacted the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) and gave it the details that Rau had provided. DIMIA said that it had no records of the arrival of any person called Anna Brotmeyer. The police returned to the Exchange Hotel, but Rau had left, and they later found her about north of the town, where they ordered her back to the Coen police station. There she gave several different stories about how and when she entered the country, none of them consistent. The police again contacted DIMIA, which advised them to detain Rau as a suspected unlawful non-citizen under the provisions of the Migration Act 1958. Rau was searched, and had a Norwegian passport, a book with two names (both different from Anna and Cornelia) on it, and A$2,413 in her possession. Later that day she was driven from Coen to Cairns.