A 19-year-old Canadian woman found dead on a popular Australian tourist island off the coast of Queensland on Monday was discovered surrounded by a pack of dingoes, say local police.
The woman was found on K’gari (formerly known as 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 statement.
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 woman may have gone swimming around 5 a.m., the statement said.
The woman, 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 large pack of dingoes.
Algie told ABC that the dingoes were seen near the woman’s body. He later added that the wild dogs had been in contact with the woman’s body.
“I can confirm that the woman’s body had been touched and interfered with by the dingoes, but we are not speculating yet as to whether that was anything to do with her cause of death,” Algie stated.
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The woman’s body has since been taken to mainland Australia, and her family is being contacted, the Australian outlet said.
Police took statements from people who knew the woman’s movements to try to establish what occurred between 5 a.m. and 6:15 a.m., Algie told reporters, according to the Guardian.
“There was an hour, to an hour and 15 minutes, that police are currently piecing together as a part of their investigations,” he said.
“It was obviously a very traumatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.”
K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, is 123 kilometres long and is the largest sand island in the world.
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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 speculate on the cause of death — we simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned, or died as a result 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 wider community.
Global News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for more information, but as of this writing has not received a response.
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