Authorities are investigating how an 80-year-old Australian cruise passenger was left behind on a Great Barrier Reef island and later found dead.
Rees was traveling on the Coral Adventurer, a Coral Expeditions ship, during a 60-day cruise around Australia. Police and local media reported that on Saturday, she joined other passengers on a hike up Cook’s Look, a steep island trail. According to her daughter, Katherine Rees, Suzanne began to feel unwell during the climb and decided to return alone while the others continued to the summit.
“We are shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organised excursion without my Mum,” Katherine Rees told media outlets in a statement. “From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense. We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and Mum felt ill on the hill climb. She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone.”
The Coral Adventurer left the island that evening and did not report Rees missing until several hours later, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. A search operation began near midnight, with helicopters combing the rugged terrain. Rees’s body was discovered Sunday morning, approximately 50 meters (55 yards) off the hiking trail to the lookout, according to The Australian newspaper.
Coral Expeditions Chief Executive Mark Fifield said the company was cooperating with investigations and had extended condolences to Rees’s family. “We have expressed our heartfelt condolences to the Rees family and remain deeply sorry that this has occurred,” Fifield said in a statement. “We continue to provide our full support to the Rees family through this difficult time.”
Authorities are treating her death as non-suspicious and have referred the case to the coroner. Katherine Rees said she hoped the coroner’s investigation would “find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum’s life.”
NTD has reached out to Coral Expeditions for further comments.