A British backpacker was ‘kidnapped’ on her travels in Queensland, Australia, and later rescued after she secretly used her phone to send her location to her dad in Manchester.
Mary Kate Heys, 2o, agreed to an early morning road trip on the Sunshine Coast with a 22 year-old Swedish traveller who she described as being ‘in a manic state’.
Mary, who met the man in her Mooloolaba hostel, was concerned about his safety so agreed to get in the car with him on Monday, but soon became ‘terrified’ as he allegedly held her against her will.
Queensland Police officers were able to ascertain Mary’s whereabouts after she secretly sent her dad texts including her location.
She was using maps to direct the Swedish man to Cairns in North Queensland and kept pretending the app was malfunctioning so she could message her dad for help.
In the messages to her father Antony, Mary wrote:
Dad, are you awake? I need you to cal [sic] Australian police. Do not ring me. And tell them I’m in a silver a [sic] Peugeot… I’ve been taken by a man. I don’t think he’s dangerous. Please hurry.
A Queensland Police spokesman told the Mirror:
Basically what happened was they have gotten in a car down at the Sunshine Coast and they have driven up to Gympie.
She has said that she was being held against her will. So it was a deprivation of liberty job. Police have then pulled the car over in Gympie.
They have spoken to both parties involved. He was then taken to the hospital but I believe he did go to the mental health unit there.
Then the woman has told police she did not want any further action taken on it. Basically, not press any charges.
The Police in Queensland finally intercepted the car in Gympie, about 55 miles from the hostel, and Miss Heys jumped out of the vehicle before it had properly stopped.
She believed the man needed help as he repeatedly talked about how ‘they’ were coming and how ‘we had to get to Cairns to escape’.
Despite Mary saying ‘I was so scared I thought I was going to die’, she did not press charges, and insisted the man be taken to hospital for medical treatment.
