{"id":255688,"date":"2025-07-11T08:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T08:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255688\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T08:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T08:18:08","slug":"carolina-wilga-police-rule-out-foul-play-in-search-for-missing-german-backpacker-in-remote-western-australia-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255688\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Wilga: police rule out foul play in search for missing German backpacker in remote Western Australia | Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australia police are ruling out foul play as they continue searching for missing German backpacker Carolina Wilga<\/a>, saying they believe she may have walked into inhospitable bush after her van broke down.<\/p>\n

Police on Thursday found Wilga\u2019s abandoned Mitsubishi van<\/a> about 150km from Beacon in the Karroun Hill area, which has been described as remote and inhospitable country.<\/p>\n

The van is believed to have suffered mechanical issues, and police believe Wilga may have walked away from her vehicle.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old last had contact with friends on 29 June after travelling through the towns of Toodyay and Dowerin, south-west of Beacon, earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Acting Insp Jessica Securo said that an inexperienced person could easily become lost in the remote location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terrain is outback country and there are large, rocky outcrops,\u201d she told ABC News on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo although there\u2019s a number of tracks, you can see how it would be easy to become lost or disorientated in that area if you didn\u2019t know it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Securo said Wilga\u2019s vehicle was located at least about 35km from any main tracks.<\/p>\n

Map of Toodyay, Dowerin, Beacon and Karroun Hill nature reserve<\/a><\/p>\n

Police are using aircraft to search for Wilga due to the difficult terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe search has resumed in that Karroun Hill area. It will be concentrating around her vehicle and tracks that offshoot that area,\u201d Securo said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur aerial support is our best chances of finding her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forensic officers are inspecting the van to determine why it was abandoned and what Wilga may have been able to carry with her after she left it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that as she was driving, she\u2019s likely to [have] become lost, and then the car has suffered mechanical issues \u2026 and [she] has potentially walked away from her vehicle,\u201d Securo said.<\/p>\n

She said that Wilga\u2019s van was \u201cself-sufficient\u201d and that she had solar panels and water, but that the vehicle was mechanically unable to be used when it was found.<\/p>\n

Police do not believe Wilga was the victim of foul play or met with any other person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australia police are ruling out foul play as they continue searching for missing German backpacker Carolina Wilga,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-255688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114833621166316577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}