A TEENAGER MISSING in Australia has been found alive almost a week after crashing her car off a steep embankment.
Kathleen Bautista (19) was last seen on Saturday morning.
Police had put significant resources into the search as she had sent ‘concerning’ texts to her boyfriend and family before she disappeared.
However, analysis of signals from Bautista’s mobile phone led search teams to an area of the Cotter Reserve near Canberra.
Her car was found after arriving at the scene, crashed and lying upside-down in a stream.
First Constable Lachlan Ryan, who was heading up the search operation, told a press conference that soon afterwards a hand was seen waving at the search team.
Bautista had crawled as much as a hundred metres away from the scene, and although dehydrated and beginning to suffer the effects of exposure was lucid, attempting to catch the team’s attention.
“She had injuries from the collision,” Ryan said.
We had a clear conversation with her, she was chatty and even started telling jokes… She was in good spirits.
Bautista’s father, Ronnie, said he let out the “loudest scream” when he heard the news, and said he was “over the moon”.
ABC News reports that it is believed she had survived by drinking water from the stream.
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