A German tourist named Carolina Wilga was found alive in the Australian outback on Friday, 12 days after she went missing. This discovery came just a day after her abandoned van was located, according to police reports.
The 26-year-old backpacker was last seen on June 29, which is also the last day her family and friends heard from her.
She had been spotted at a general store in a small wheat farming community about 200 miles northeast of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
At the time of the 2021 census, the population of Beacon was just 123.
Search teams found Wilga wandering along a forest path, as confirmed by Western Australia Police Inspector Martin Glynn late Friday.
While she was described as “fragile,” she did not have any serious injuries and was flown to a hospital in Perth for treatment, Glynn told reporters.
“Once you hear her story, I think it will be quite surprising,” he said, adding that she faced some tough conditions out there. “It’s a very hostile environment from both the flora and fauna. It’s really challenging to deal with.”
Police believe the backpacker was missing since June 29
The area where Wilga went missing spans over 740,000 acres.
The night temperatures from Thursday to Friday were around 36.7°F in areas without rainfall.
Law enforcement helicopter crews discovered her van on Thursday, situated in the remote Cologne Hill Nature Reserve, about 22 miles north of Beacon.
“It’s difficult country. The area is massive. So, it’s a miracle they found the car, to be honest,” Glynn commented prior to her discovery.
Search teams on the ground had already been sweeping a 1,000-foot radius around the van on Friday.
Photos shared by police depicted Wilga in the small town of Beacon on the day she disappeared.
Although Wilga was in a “fragile” state, she was not seriously harmed.
Police believe her 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Star wagon got stuck in the mud the day she left Beacon.
The van was equipped with solar panels and water supplies, featuring a board placed under the rear wheels to help gain traction if it got bogged down.
Authorities are treating Wilga’s case as one of being lost rather than a crime victim scenario.
This comes in light of past incidents involving Ivan Millat, an Australian serial killer who, between 1989 and 1992, murdered seven backpackers, including three Germans, two British, and two Australians, before dying in prison in 2019.
