Missing Backpacker Found Alive After 12 Days in Remote Australian Outback

A backpacker missing for 12 days in the remote Australian outback has been found alive, police have confirmed.

On Friday, July 11, the Western Australia (WA) Police Force confirmed on Facebook that Carolina Wilga, 26, from Germany — who has been backpacking around the country for the last two years — had been “located safe and well” in the Wheatbelt region.

“Ms. Wilga was located by a member of the public, before being conveyed to receive medical attention,” police said.

“Police would like to thank the member of the public who located Ms. Wilga, as well as all members of the community who provided information to assist with search efforts,” the post added.

The news comes after police confirmed on Facebook on Thursday, July 10 that Wilga’s abandoned vehicle had been found at around 1:10 p.m. local time in the Karroun Hill area, in the north-east Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.

Police said that the Mitsubishi Delica driven by Wilga was “believed to have suffered mechanical issues,” per the Facebook post.

Wilga hadn’t been seen or heard from since June 29 after being spotted arriving at a store in the small town of Beacon, around 200 miles east of Perth, at around 12:10 p.m. local time in her van. She departed the area around five minutes later, and hadn’t been heard from since, police previously said.

WA Police Inspector Martin Glynn said on Friday that Wilga had been found walking along a bush track at the edge of the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve by a member of the public, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“She is now en route to a hospital in Perth for some medical attention,” he told reporters at a media conference, the outlet noted.

“As you can imagine from the trauma she’s suffered for the last few days, she’s been obviously through a great deal,” Glynn added.

The officer said that the backpacker “has a number of significant minor injuries,” 9News reported.

Glynn continued, “She does have some injuries, she’s been ravaged by mosquitoes, she’s been through an incredible journey of trauma,” the ABC stated.

“No doubt, [it] will be a testament to demonstrating her bravery in these circumstances,” he shared, per the outlet.

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Glynn said Wilga’s family had been notified that she was safe, and that the backpacker had now been airlifted away from Beacon in a “fragile condition,” the ABC stated.

The officer mentioned that the conditions she’d likely endured would have been “a thousand times worse” than what the rescue team had experienced, the outlet noted.

“She’s in a fragile position at the moment,” Glynn said, per 9News. “This is a great outcome for all those involved. I think once we do hear her story it will be a remarkable story.”

Before Wilga was found on Friday, WA Police Acting Inspector Jessica Securo told ABC Radio Perth that officers thought she was “likely” to have “become lost in that area, and [had] potentially walked away from her vehicle.”

“The terrain — it’s outback country and there’s large rocky outcrops, so although there’s a number of tracks, you can see how it would be easy to become lost or disorientated,” Securo added to the outlet.

Wilga’s abandoned van was discovered around 62 miles north of where she was last seen, the ABC noted.

Western Australia Police did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.