This four-year-old girl went missing in the south of Tasmania, but she’s been found alive and well.
Around 100 people were involved in the search for Shayla Phillips on the Tasman Peninsula after she went missing on a Wednesday afternoon.
The crews of the State Emergency Service did a close-to-ground search and noticed the girl on a steep slope in bushland near Halls Road in Stormlea after 4 pm on a Friday. She was some hundred meters from where she disappeared.
According to inspector Gavin Hallett, Shayla could walk, but she seemed disoriented and the police tried their best to reunite the girl with her mom as soon as possible.
Emotional, Happy News for the Worried Mom
The inspector said that it was very emotional when they informed the mom that her baby girl was found and she was very grateful.
The girl was taken to a hospital to be assessed after being lost in a remote area for two nights where the temperatures dropped to 11 degrees C.
Hallett explains that dehydration was probably a problem so the doctors wanted to fix this as soon as possible.
The place where they found the girl was some 500 meters from the nearest house and this place had been searched before from the air, but not on foot.
Hallett explains that he knew that the search crews will need to go through dense bushland had to keep going.
This was a search and rescue for the team and there weren’t any signs that something bad had happened. They were aware they could find her if they keep pushing.
They were all relieved when the girl was found alive and well. In addition to manpower, the search also included sniffer dogs, helicopters, divers, and thermal imaging drones.
When Did the Girl Went Missing?
Shayla had been playing outside with the dogs of the neighbors when she was nowhere to be found at around 2.30 pm. She was reported wearing pink leggings, a cream top, and gumboots.
Her mom went to check up on her daughter some thirty minutes later, but the dogs and Shayla weren’t there.
The premier of Tasmania, Peter Gutwein, said that the happy news warmed their hearts and he thanked everyone who took part in finding the girl.
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