That didn’t happen one recent day on K’gari, a nature-lover’s paradise and popular tourist island off southeast Queensland. A rabid 19-year-old Canadian woman dead on the beach in Coffs Harbour, mauled to death by a pack of dingoes. The woman had previously worked as a manager at a local backpacker’s hostel. She had departed her lodging by 5 a.m. on Monday morning and had informed her coworkers that she intended to swim alone.
The woman’s body was found north of the Maheno shipwreck between 6 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. Witnesses reported encountering a pack of about ten dingoes surrounding her body. Two local men driving south from Orchard Beach first encountered the pack and later confirmed the presence of the deceased woman when they approached the scene.
Insp Algie from the local police stated, “It was obviously a very traumatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.” The police are still trying to reconstruct a timeline of events leading up to her death. She unfortunately passed away during the 75 minutes after she left the youth hostel.
Police have launched an investigation into the events leading to the woman’s death. They’ve interviewed a number of witnesses and people who knew her whereabouts before her death. A postmortem is to be conducted Wednesday to establish the cause of death.
At this point, police have ruled out the woman drowning and are still determining if she was mauled by dingoes. “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,” Insp Algie said. He added that “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.”
Insp Algie reminded people to respect wildlife, especially in wild places such as K’gari. “Dingoes are wild animals, and whilst they are very culturally significant to the local First Nations people, and to the people that live on the island, they are still wild animals and need to be treated as such,” he explained.
A Canadian friend of the deceased was helping authorities reach her family. The police are working alongside the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to ensure that services are provided during this trying time.