Police in have issued a public appeal for help as they continue their search for a 26-year-old German woman who went missing more than a week ago while backpacking in the state of Western Australia.
The West Australian daily later reported that a van belonging to the woman, Carolina Wilga, had been found unattended near Karroun Hill, some 300 km (186 miles) northeast of the state’s capital, Perth, early on Thursday afternoon.
The paper said that the vehicle appeared to have suffered mechanical issues.
What do we know about the case?
Wilga was last seen on June 29 at a general store in the small agricultural town of Beacon, also situated to the northeast of Perth, police said.
“Carolina departed that area about five minutes later and has not been seen or heard from since,” homicide squad detective senior sergeant Katharine Venn told reporters.
Venn said Wilga had planned to travel into remote areas of the state but also to the eastern coast, meaning that the search might need to cover a huge area.
She said there was so far no evidence that a third party was involved in the disappearance, but that all lines of inquiry were being followed.
Venn said that Wilga’s behavior was “unexplained” and “concerning,” adding that the investigation was “very broad.”
Wilga’s phone has been switched off, with local media reports saying she had previously kept in regular contact with her family in Germany.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that additional forces had been deployed to search the area where Wilga’s van was found, which is in Western Australia’s so-called Wheatbelt region.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher
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