Young backpacker found alive after 12 days missing in the Australian Outback
Police in Australia have found backpacker Carolina Wilga alive after she went missing in the Outback for nearly two weeks.
Carolina, 26, was last seen at a general store in Beacon, a small town around 200 miles from Perth, at about midday on June 29. Her friends and family had not heard from her since.
Their fears grew when Carolina’s van was found abandoned in wilderness in the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, around 60 miles north of Beacon.
Western Australia Police Force Acting Inspector Jessica Securo said yesterday that officers believed she likely set off on foot after breaking down.
In an update on Friday, they confirmed a stranger found Carolina walking along a bush track, the West Australian reports.
Earlier, Ms Securo told Australian Broadcasting Corp: ‘It appears that as she was driving, she’s likely to have become lost and then the car has suffered mechanical issues.
‘It’s hard to say how much she has taken [with her from the van].
‘We do know that she was planning to travel throughout regional WA and do some exploring through there.’
She added: ‘The terrain is Outback country and there’s large rocky outcrops.
‘Although there’s a number of tracks, you can see how it would be easy to become lost or disorientated in that area if you didn’t know it well.’
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said police were ‘throwing a lot of resources’ at the search.
‘They’ve moved swiftly now, and the search is ongoing and is resource-intensive. We want to bring Carolina home, and the police are doing everything they can,’ he told reporters.
Detective Senior Sergeant Katharine Venn said the search for Carolina was ‘vast’, with authorities in all states and territories notified.
‘She could be off grid, not have access to her phone, and she certainly had capacity in the vehicle she was travelling in to be self-sufficient for quite some time,’ Sergeant Venn said.
‘The family are understandably distraught, very worried, as any of us would be with a young family member on the other side of the world missing in such unusual circumstance.’
Carolina’s mum, Katja Will, who lives in the city of Castrop-Rauxel in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has appealed for public help to find her daughter.
‘Carolina is still sorely missed. If anyone has any information, please contact the police. Please keep your eyes open!!!’ she said on a post on an Western Australian Police Force social media site.
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