Found Alive Carolina Wilga, 26, German backpacker missing with serious concerns for welfare. Beacon, Western Australia, 29 June 2025

[detective.moon]

Is that supposed to be her driving that vehicle? It looks like the person is completely covered up in a burqa or something.

Trying to showed a zoomed in image.
View attachment 600931

to me it looks like it’s her, wearing the same scarf and sweater as when she was last seen in a store in Beacon! i think her face is just hard to make out in the grainy, zoomed in picture.

(source of the second picture: Last-known footage of missing backpacker released)

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I had a look on my phone and it's a lot clearer.
It does look like Carolina and wearing what she was wearing in the last pic of her.

I can see something that looks like a pair of hands from someone sitting in the back seat and clutching the top of the front passenger seat. They look like fingers curled over.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

People should be allowed to travel around countries like Australia and be safe. She hasn't done anything wrong by seeking work/travelling, and I hope she's okay and that she just can't charge her phone right now for some reason.

However if authorities and her family are all concerned for her welfare, we should be very concerned as well. I really feel for her mother, trying to navigate this from Germany and how terrified she must feel.

 

[Deleted member 367982]

Missing backpacker Carolina Wilga’s van discovered abandoned in remote Wheatbelt​

Missing backpacker’s van found abandoned in remote WA

Police have found the van belonging to a missing German backpacker who vanished in the Wheatbelt — but the young woman was not with the vehicle.

thewest.com.au

 

[Deleted member 367982]

Carolina's car was found within the Karroun Hill nature reserve and that is where Barry Podmore's car was discovered in May after he went missing last December. Barry has never been seen since.
Edit: Police believe Carolina's van had "suffered mechanical issues".

 

[sapphire blue]

Carolina's car was found within the Karroun Hill nature reserve and that is where Barry Podmore's car was discovered in May after he went missing last December. Barry has never been seen since.
Edit: Police believe Carolina's van had "suffered mechanical issues".

My concern would be the snakes in the nature reserve. Dugite and tiger snakes would be common, both are venomous

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Oh no. Is it a large nature reserve where someone can drive through? Is it plausible that her vehicle broke down while trying to drive through and then she became lost trying to hike out? What if the same thing happened to Mr. Podmore as well? I wonder if the vehicles were found in places where it would be difficult to figure out how to seek help from those locations.

I assume a person would try to follow the road forward or back, but they would presumably have to seek water as well. It is scary to think about.

 

[sapphire blue]

Oh no. Is it a large nature reserve where someone can drive through? Is it plausible that her vehicle broke down while trying to drive through and then she became lost trying to hike out? What if the same thing happened to Mr. Podmore as well? I wonder if the vehicles were found in places where it would be difficult to figure out how to seek help from those locations.

I assume a person would try to follow the road forward or back, but they would presumably have to seek water as well. It is scary to think about.

Karroun Hill nature reserve is about 310,000 hectares, it is bordered to the east by the rabbit proof fence and to the south by the emu proof fence.

See attached for a map and info about it

Map of Karroun Hill Nature Reserve in Western Australia - Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia

 

[Deleted member 367982]

Carolina Wilga’s van was found abandoned on Thursday afternoon. Credit: WA Police and Facebook

 

[Tealgrove]

I’m not sure why she is being called a backpacker. It appears to me that she’s doing the Van Life kinda experience.

There doesn’t seem to be any correlation between Barry Podmore and Carolina other than they’re both missing and both of their vehicles were found in the same area.

I’d be interested to know if Barry’s car was found in the exact same spot as Carolina’s.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

MOO

 

[detective.moon]

I’m not sure why she is being called a backpacker. It appears to me that she’s doing the Van Life kinda experience.

rsbm

from what i read before she was mostly staying in hostels, though i can imagine she could live out of her van too

The 26-year-old has been backpacking around Australia for the past two years and has been mostly staying in hostels.

Distraught mother’s plea: ‘Keep your eyes open’

The mother of a young German backpacker missing in the Wheatbelt for almost a fortnight has pleaded with the public to ‘keep your eyes open’.

thewest.com.au

 

[starlightstarbright]

I wonder if that photo of her located van is the exact position it was found in. It’s hard to see because so zoomed in, but it seems almost hidden in that dip. And what are the orange things under the tyres? Are they skids of some sort to stabilise the van or is that part of the effort to tow it out of that space?

 

[starlightstarbright]

Also to add that I saw a better photo of her van with her driving out of a petrol station by the lots of it, posted by 9 News.. It is definitely her and those weird hand things in the back look to be the sun reflecting off what looks to possibly be bedding or a sleeping mat.

ETA photo and link.

Search for missing backpacker in outback WA intensifies after van found empty

All states and territories are searching for a German backpacker who disappeared from outback Western Austr...

www.9news.com.au

 

[BreakingNews]

Thanks for starting a thread!

I'd just come in to start one.

Me too

 

[TootsieFootsie]

In Australia backpackers are young people, and maybe older ones too who travel around, often staying in hostels.
They can be people who have their own car, take trains, or even fly to different areas, often looking for work to fund their travels.
They often travel lightly, hence a backpack.

 

[sapphire blue]

I wonder if that photo of her located van is the exact position it was found in. It’s hard to see because so zoomed in, but it seems almost hidden in that dip. And what are the orange things under the tyres? Are they skids of some sort to stabilise the van or is that part of the effort to tow it out of that space?

The orange things are 4WD recovery tracks

Like these Maxtrax Recovery Tracks Orange

 

[Deleted member 367982]

Evidently, the track Carolina's car was found on is a 4WD track. It's very rough and the yellow things under the wheels in the photo indicate she may have got stuck in the sand and tried reversing. That bogged situation could have caused the mechanical failure.
To go anywhere alone in this day and age of communication a satellite device like what Garmin make for around $500 is not just money well spent but essential IMO.
That is if you want to be found and everyone has a right not to be found if that's what they want.

 

[Deleted member 367982]

When I went on the ABC Western Australia website yesterday to see what the latest was on Carolina's disappearance, the first thing I saw was an article about Robert Bogucki who went missing in the desert much further north than Beacon more than 25 years ago.

Finding Robert Bogucki, the man who disappeared on purpose​

Decades after he disappeared into the desert, Robert Bogucki returns

In 1999 a young American dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert. Why was he willing to risk his life, and why do some people need to get lost in order to feel found?

www.abc.net.au

 

[jillolantern]

DBM

 

[jillolantern]

to me it looks like it’s her, wearing the same scarf and sweater as when she was last seen in a store in Beacon!

Great call!