Police are investigating the death of a 19-year-old Canadian woman in Australia.
At around 6.35 a.m. local time on Monday, Jan. 19, the police were called about a woman who was found “unresponsive” at a beach north of Maheno Wreck on the Queensland island of K’gari, the Queensland Police said in a news release. The woman was pronounced dead a short time later.
It is believed that the woman went for a swim at around 5 a.m., the police said. Two men driving near Orchid Beach then saw around 10 dingoes [Australia’s native wild dogs] surrounding an “object” shortly before 6:30 a.m., 9News Australia reported.
“Upon closer inspection, they saw that it was, in fact, a female person at the scene,” said Wide Bay District Inspector Paul Algie, per the outlet. “It was obviously a very dramatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.”
Algie confirmed that the woman had markings on her body “consistent with having been touched and interfered with by the dingoes,” though he could not confirm the exact cause of death, per 9News Australia.
“We simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned or died as a result of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.
The woman had been living on the island with a friend for six weeks and worked at a backpackers’ hostel, according to News.com.au. She has not been identified at this time.
A post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death has been scheduled in mainland Queensland, per 9News Australia. “We’ll obviously throw every resource we can at it to get some resolution for her family,” said Algie.
The police are being assisted by the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) in the investigation, per News.com.au.
“K’gari is a wilderness area … and while [dingoes] are very culturally and significant to the local First Nations people and to the people that live on the island, they are still wild animals and need to be treated as such,” said Algie, per 9 News Australia.
“I implore all people that visit K’gari, which is a beautiful place, that you do not go near dingoes, that you do not feed dingoes and that you just leave them to live their life and you need to move around them accordingly,” he added.
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PEOPLE has reached out to the Queensland Police and the DETSI for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
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