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Shannon Leah Fraser, 30, credits the thought of returning to her three children with giving her the strength to persevere through 17 days lost in a Queensland forest. ‘I could always feel in my heart that she was alive,’ her fiancée said.
Shannon went missing at the Golden Hole swimming spot, northwest of Innisfail, about an hour south of Cairns.
She reappeared on Wednesday after 16 nights in the bush, much to the surprise of a local farmer who was eating his lunch at the beauty spot.
No one is quite sure how Shannon managed to go missing – she had been enjoying a picnic with her partner, before following him on a walk through the rugged terrain where is is believed they became separated.
Shannon’s brother Dylan Fraser told ABC News: “She must have taken a wrong turn, and got lost.
“I honestly didn’t know what to believe, there were so many stories flying around, the police didn’t have much of a lead.”
Despite Shannon’s difficult journey, she managed to pull through by thinking of her children, Dylan said.
She lived off insects and tried to survive until she found coloured ribbons, believed to be left by the SAS, and followed them to safety.
When the sunburn took its toll, she lay in the river for three days to sooth her skin in the fresh water which flows from Queensland’s highest mountain, Mount Bartle Frere.
“She was that exhausted , she couldn’t walk, she just felt like giving up,” Dylan said.
On the day Shannon disappeared she was wearing leggings, flip -lops and a shirt, but emerged from the bush wearing very little and had splinters in her feet.
“The trees ripped off her clothes,” Dylan said. “She has lost a lot of weight, 16.9 kilograms.”
Shannon has now enjoyed her first proper meal in over two weeks – a curry and a coke – but just how she got so lost remains a mystery.
Agencies/Canadajournal
