Barbara Marincic, 83, was spotted in a cane field by crew members of an RACQ Central Queensland rescue helicopter just before 2 p.m., having been reported missing from Yalboroo on February 28. She was airlifted to the Mackay Base Hospital in a “serious but stable” condition.
The woman was found “caked in mud and sludge” and the crew “couldn’t believe she was alive,” RACQ CQ Rescue said in a social media post yesterday.
Queensland Police issued public appeals after Marincic’s disappearance from a rural property at about 8:15 a.m. last Friday and urged local citizens to search their properties, sheds and vacant houses. A widespread land, sea and air search was quickly established to scour the area.
“She was moaning and sort of tired and upset and obviously dehydrated but [it was] great to see her alive,” Ben McCauley, of RACQ Central Queensland, told 7 News.
“Her house was on the other side of the highway so she has obviously gone for a walk and crossed the road and sort of stumbled into the paddock there.”
The woman’s daughter, Barbara Farren-Price, told media this week that doctors found there had luckily been little physical damage to her mother as a result of the ordeal.
She said: “The doctors here were going to put her in ICU [Intensive Care Unit], and they said, well, there’s nothing wrong with her. They cleaned her up because she was thick in mud.
“She probably had about two centimeters on her everywhere and her mouth was even full of mud. Once they cleaned her up… she looked normal. The only thing that was a bit high was her blood pressure but otherwise nothing, Scratches and bruises, but they’re already healing.”
As the search ramped up over the weekend, The Daily Mercury newspaper suggested that Marincic had gone missing close to a “crocodile-infested” river.
The outlet cited a spokesperson from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) as saying an initial search had temporarily been called off after two “large crocodiles” were spotted in the area, sparking further tabloid reporting about a possible encounter with the reptile.
But contrary to those reports, Farren-Price maintained that it was likely wartime memories that played a role in her mother’s continued disappearance. She said: “She is old school. She is a World War II child so the helicopter that was trying to help her, she was running from. From the three days that she was walking around, so close to home, she kept walking in the same sort of direction.
“The fourth day she was that tired she couldn’t run from the helicopter, because I think it scared her. When she was going into the field she was a bit slower so that’s how they found her.”
In a brief statement, Queensland Police thanked “all those involved in the search, which included State Emergency Service volunteers, army personnel and members of the public.”
In its own post, after sharing photos from the search operation, RACQ CQ Rescue added: “Just fantastic to see Barbara Marincic recovering so well after being missing in the bush and cane fields for four days at Yalbaroo! We send her and her very relieved family our very best wishes!”
