Canadian woman found dead in Australia surrounded by dingoes identified

The Canadian Press and Australian media have identified a 19-year-old Canadian woman found dead on a popular Australian tourist island off the coast of Queensland on Monday as Piper James, from Campbell River, BC.

Canadian police have not confirmed the woman’s identity.

The woman’s body was found on K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) at about 6.35 a.m. local time on Monday, surrounded by dingoes.

Police were called to the beach, north of the Maheno Shipwreck, to reports of an unresponsive woman, Queensland authorities said in a statement.

Close friend Brianna Falk, a high school classmate of James, told the publication she was at her day job when she heard the news.

She said she spoke with a friend who learned of James’s death through her family.

“We had so many plans and she was so young,” Falk said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“You never think that it is going to be somebody that you know, let alone one of your closest friends.”

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Initial information indicated that the woman may have gone swimming around 5 a.m., the statement said.

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The woman had been working for six weeks at a hostel on the island, police Insp. Paul Algie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and had informed colleagues that she was going for a swim about 75 minutes before her body was discovered.

Her next known sighting was between 6 a.m and 6:15 a.m. on the beach, when two male witnesses saw a large pack of dingoes.

Algie told ABC that the dingoes were seen near the woman’s body. He later added that the wild dogs had been in contact with the woman’s body.

“I can confirm that the woman’s body had been touched and interfered with by the dingoes, but we are not speculating yet as to whether that was anything to do with her cause of death,” Algie stated.

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The woman’s body has since been taken to mainland Australia, and her family is being contacted, the Australian outlet said.

Police took statements from people who knew the woman’s movements to try to establish what occurred between 5 a.m. and 6:15 a.m., Algie told reporters, according to the Guardian.

“There was an hour, to an hour and 15 minutes, that police are currently piecing together as a part of their investigations,” he said.

“It was obviously a very traumatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.”

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The police officer said authorities were awaiting a postmortem, scheduled for Wednesday, before providing further information.

“At this stage, it’s too early to speculate on the cause of death — we simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned, or died as a result of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.

Dingoes are native to K’gari and are protected there. The island is a wilderness area, and dingoes are culturally significant to local First Nations people and the wider community.

Global Affairs Canada confirmed that a Canadian citizen died in Australia, but did not provide any further details for privacy reasons.