Cornelia Rau is a German and Australian citizen who was unlawfully detained for a period of ten months in 2004 and 2005 as part of the Australian Government's mandatory detention program. Her detention became the subject of a government inquiry which was later expanded to investigate over 200 other cases of suspected unlawful detention by the Australian government's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA). She disappeared from Manly Hospital on 17 March 2004, and, in February 2005, it was revealed that she had been unlawfully detained at Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre, a prison, and later at Baxter Detention Centre, after being classified as a suspected illegal immigrant or non-citizen by the Immigration Department when she refused to reveal her true identity. Rau was the inspiration for the character Sofie Werner portrayed by Yvonne Strahovski in the 2020 show Stateless. Life in Australia Rau arrived in Australia from Germany in 1967, aged eighteen months. Her family lived in Australia until 1980 when they returned to Germany. They lived there for two years, then moved to Asia and once again to Australia in 1983 where they remained. Although Rau is still a German citizen and spoke some German at home, at school and elsewhere she spoke English. Rau attended an art school and worked in hospitality before taking a job as a flight attendant with Qantas. In April 1998, Rau joined Kenja Communication, a cult, but was apparently expelled from the organisation following a Kenja event in Melbourne. Mental illness In October 1998, Rau was hospitalised for three months, after unstable behaviour probably brought on by a Kenja artistic festival. At the time, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but doctors later diagnosed her with schizophrenia. At one point, doctors believed that Rau had schizoaffective bipolar disorder. Between January 1999 and March 2004, Rau was hospitalised several more times after further incidents of unstable behaviour. On several occasions, she disappeared for a few days, and sometimes she travelled overseas, but she had always returned or made contact with her family, usually with her sister, Christine Rau. On 1 December 2003, Rau disappeared, and was reported missing to the police by her family, but she soon returned. Rau was prescribed medication for her condition and was often re-admitted to hospital, but did not like the treatment because of its side effects. Eventually Rau's doctors and her family scheduled a community