A 19-year-old Canadian woman found dead on a preferred Australian tourist island off the coast of Queensland on Monday was discovered surrounded by a pack of dingoes, say local police.
The girl was found on K’gari (formerly often called Fraser Island) at about 6.35 a.m. local time. Police were called to the beach, north of the Maheno Shipwreck, to reports of an unresponsive woman, Queensland authorities said in a press release.
Aerial view of the S.S. Maheno Shipwreck along 75-mile beach on the sand island of Kgari, Queensland, Australia.
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Initial information indicated that the girl can have gone swimming around 5 a.m., the statement said.
The girl, who has not been named, had been working for six weeks at a hostel on the island, police Insp. Paul Algie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and had informed colleagues that she was going for a swim about 75 minutes before her body was discovered.
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Her next known sighting was between 6 a.m and 6:15 a.m. on the beach, when two male witnesses saw a big pack of dingoes.
Algie told ABC that the dingoes were seen near the girl’s body. He later added that the wild dogs had been in touch with the girl’s body.
“I can confirm that the girl’s body had been touched and interfered with by the dingoes, but we usually are not speculating yet as as to if that was anything to do together with her explanation for death,” Algie stated.
The girl’s body has since been taken to mainland Australia, and her family is being contacted, the Australian outlet said.
Police took statements from individuals who knew the girl’s movements to try to ascertain what occurred between 5 a.m. and 6:15 a.m., Algie told reporters, in response to the Guardian.
“There was an hour, to an hour and quarter-hour, that police are currently piecing together as an element of their investigations,” he said.
“It was obviously a really traumatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.”
K’gari, formerly often called Fraser Island, is 123 kilometres long and is the most important sand island on the earth.
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The police officer said authorities were awaiting a postmortem, scheduled for Wednesday, before providing further information.
“At this stage, it’s too early to take a position on the explanation for death — we simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned, or died in consequence of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.
Dingoes are native to K’gari and are protected there. The island is a wilderness area, and dingoes are culturally significant to local First Nations people and the broader community.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed that a Canadian citizen died in Australia, but didn’t provide any further details for privacy reasons.
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