Missing woman survives on wine, lollipops for five days. ‘Thought I was going to die’
A woman stranded in the Australian wilderness survived on wine and lollipops for five days before she was rescued, police say.
Lillian, 48, went missing on Sunday, April 30, while on a trip to Bright, Victoria Police said in a May 5 news release. When she missed her daily check-in call with family members, they became worried about her whereabouts.
Police did not provide Lillian’s last name, but News 9 Melbourne identified her as Lillian Ip.
After five days of extensive searches, a police helicopter spotted Ip’s car on a dirt road in the Mitta Mitta bushland, police said. Pilots then directed a police van to Ip’s location and she was rescued.
Officials said that while she was driving on Sunday, Ip took a wrong turn and hit a dead-end road. When she tried to turn her car around, her tires got stuck in mud, and she had no cellphone service to call for help.
Ip was about 40 miles from the nearest town, and health issues prevented her from walking to get help, police said. Instead, she stayed at her car and waited for help.
“She was only planning a short-day trip so (she) had only taken a couple of snacks and lollies with her but no water,” Wodonga Police Station Sergeant Martin Torpey said in the release. “The only liquid Lillian, who doesn’t drink, had with her was a bottle of wine she had bought as a gift for her mother so that got her through.”
Although her car was stuck, Ip was able to stay inside and use her car for warmth, according to Torpey.
“She was extremely relieved and grateful to see us and we were just as happy to see her,” he said.
By Friday, Ip said she had almost given up.
“My whole body shut down on Friday,” she told News 9 Melbourne. “I’m just sitting there thinking, what am I going to do, how am I going to survive this?”
Ip said she became so sure she was not going to survive that she wrote a letter to family saying goodbye.
“I thought I was going to die out there,” she told the news outlet.
After being rescued, Ip was taken to the hospital for observation and to be treated for dehydration, police said.
Mitta Mitta is about 250 miles northeast of Melbourne.
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