Woman stuck in Australian woods for 5 days lives on wine, juice box

May 25, 2023

Australian police rescued a woman last week who survived five days stranded in the woods living off wine and a juice box.

Lillian Ip, from Cheltenham in Melbourne, was making a short trip up to Dartmouth Dam April 30 when she made a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end with her car stuck in the mud. She was 37 miles from the nearest town, Wodonga Police Station Sgt. Martin Torpey said in a news release.

With no food, water or phone reception, Ip survived using the only things she had: a gifted bottle of wine, a juice box, lollipops and a blanket.

"I'm just sitting there thinking: 'What am I going to do? How am I going to survive this?'" she told 9news, an Australian news outlet. "I was about to give up."

Police, who were searching for Ip after she was reported missing, spotted her car in the dense bushland May 4 while doing a sweep of the hilly terrain from a helicopter. Authorities on the helicopter directed a police van to her location, the release said.

Rescuers took Ip to the hospital and treated her for dehydration.

Because of health problems, Torpey said, Ip, 48, was unable to seek help, so she stayed in her car.

"While she couldn't move her car, she was able to use the heater overnight (to) give her some warmth," he said.

Ip said her body started to shut down after a couple of days and she was convinced she wasn't going to make it. On the fourth day, she wrote a letter to her family telling them she loved them.

"I thought I was going to die out there," she told 9news.

Police found Ip the next day.

"She was extremely relieved and grateful to see us," Torpey said. "And we were just as happy to see her."

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