Carolina Wilga, the German backpacker who went missing for 12 days, has been found alive in a remote bushland area in Western Australia.
Concerns were raised on Thursday, when her Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon van was found abandoned 100 km north of a wheat-farming town called Beacon. The town is located 320 km northwest of Perth in the Wheatbelt region and is sparsely populated. The van was found 35 kilometres away from major tracks.
It was then confirmed that Carolina Wilga, 26, was lost in the remote outback of WA after her van broke down at a nature reserve, ABC News said.
The van had signs that she used Maxtrax and pieces of wood to try to free the vehicle after it got stuck in the bushes. Officers believed that Wilga likely set off from there on foot, according to WA Police Force Acting Inspector Jessica Securo.
The next day, the police searched within a 300-metre radius to determine her direction. CCTV footage of her in multiple towns she drove through was also collected.
A police spokesperson said that she was found “safe and well.” Wilga had been travelling throughout Australia for two years and worked at WA mine sites, according to Sky News. Katja Wil, her mother, who lives in Germany, had appealed to the public for help to find her daughter.
The police have also said that there was no foul play involved in her disappearance. She had been last seen and heard on June 29 at a general store in Beacon. Glynn said that she would have obviously covered a lot of ground in her attempts to make her way out.
She was found walking along a bush track at the edge of the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve by a member of the public. After she was found, she was taken to a hospital in Perth for medical attention. She had minor injuries and had been ravaged by mosquitoes and endured freezing nights during the time she was lost.
Inspector Glynn said that she was in a fragile condition and that the condition she endured would have been a thousand times worse than what the terrain searchers experienced. “She’s coped in some amazing conditions, it’s a very hostile environment out there, both from flora and fauna … and the weather conditions have been really adverse with temperatures getting down to zero at night,” he said. He also said that Wilga had been through a great deal. “As you can imagine from the trauma she’s suffered for the last few days, she’s obviously been through a great deal,” he said.
Carolina Wilga, missing German backpacker found alive after 12 days of search in remote Western Australia
