“I was ecstatic to have this outcome,” said Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd. The experienced policeman knew that someone reported missing for 8 days in Australia’s rugged outback has a slim chance.
“It is miraculous,” he told ABC News, just 30 minutes after having prepared a statement that mother-of-4 Rikki Mitchell had not been found and, that the rescue crews and homicide detectives were nearing the end of their search.
Then the 38-year-old woman from Queensland turned up on the Flinders Highway, covered in cuts and scrapes, but alive.
The ordeal started when Mitchell and her partner of 7 months were traveling from Townsville and Charters Towers in north Queensland, and they decided to stop at a rest area.
Her partner decided to go visit a friend nearby for a quick hello while she decided to do a bit of swimming and walking at a swimming area near the rest stop.
As unlikely as the story already sounds, this is surprisingly typical of stories of people getting lost in wild country. They underestimate how easy it is to become disoriented and get lost at distances of mere hundreds of yards from parking lots, campsites, or roads.
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“It’s common knowledge that if you’re out in the bush in the heat [with] little food and little water, that you can become disoriented quite quickly,” Detective Inspector Shepherd said on this point. “I would imagine that she’s then probably headed off in the wrong direction.”
The report leaves out any details of the events between that moment and the moment of rescue 8 days later, when she “borrowed” an ATV she found on a ranch property she probably didn’t know she was on, and drove it until she heard the sounds of Flinders Highway, and ran into the ranch owner who knew the search was taking place in the area.
Rescue teams report her being covered in light scrapes and her feet were cut open and bleeding, but no major injuries besides.
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Shepherd said that while she obviously was not a trained survivalist, she must have known a thing or two to have lasted so long in the heat without a ready source of fresh water and food.
About 20 emergency service personnel partook in a search that was difficult from the start. Because it was a rest area, footprints were everywhere, and so the few tracks they were able to follow out into the bush led nowhere.
Everyone was so happy to hear the mother-of-four was safe, and the story is a poignant reminder—whether you’re in Appalachia or the Bush—of how easy it is to accidentally walk oneself into a survival situation.
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If you are ever disoriented near a road, sit down and wait as long as it takes. Eventually a car will pass and you can find your way back.