Found Deceased Tea Wright-Finger, 19, Richmond (NW Queensland), 16 Oct 2022

[iamshadow21]

(Hope I'm doing this right, this is my first thread. Mods, feel free to step in and fix or delete if this is wrong.)

Major search underway for 19yo girl missing in remote Queensland for more than a week

Tea Wright-Finger was last seen on October 16 at Richmond, more than 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa.

Police said the teenager's friend had dropped her on Coalbrook Road near the car she had been driving, but neither Ms Wright-Finger nor the four-wheel-drive have been seen since.

 

[iamshadow21]

Another link. As much as I hate the Daily Mail (for SO MANY reasons), they've got better photos of Tea, a lot more information about the context of her disappearance, and better photos of her car.

Desperate search for missing teen Tea Wright-Finger continues

Tea Wright-Finger was last seen by a friend who dropped her off near her blue Toyota Prado 4WD in Richmond in far-west Queensland on Sunday, October 16.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The place she went missing is very remote. I'd heard of a Richmond in NSW and Victoria, but not QLD. The sheer size of the area to search is a very great challenge for emergency and rescue personnel. MOO.

 

[spangled]

Why did the friend just drop her off 'near' her vehicle?

I have worked on an outback cattle station in Australia, very remote, however surprised how many people from those vary rural stations knew of each other. Wonder how many other people are at Richmond Downs. Long hours, physically hard work.

 

[iamshadow21]

Why did the friend just drop her off 'near' her vehicle?

I have worked on an outback cattle station in Australia, very remote, however surprised how many people from those vary rural stations knew of each other. Wonder how many other people are at Richmond Downs. Long hours, physically hard work.

Maybe they went somewhere together in the friend's car, and then they were going separate ways, so she dropped her back at her vehicle and carried on?

I haven't lived anywhere nearly as remote, but I lived in a small historic town in NSW for a number of years (pop max. 150), and everyone knew everyone's business. I was always oblivious because I'm a natural introvert that keeps to myself, but then I would have coffee with the older ladies I did community yoga with in the town hall on a Saturday, and then ALL the tea was getting spilt, let me tell you. It really doesn't surprise me that cattle stations are the same. I imagine mining towns like Karratha with a big FIFO population are the same, hotbeds of gossip and scandal. (Miss Marple was right about that!) MOO.

I imagine the cops have talked to everyone connected to the station; it can't have been a long list. Doesn't mean everyone would necessarily be forthcoming, but things are very up in the air right now. There's every chance this isn't foul play, but I know they have to treat it as such until evidence proves otherwise.

What worries me is that I think they should have found the car by now.

 

[Seni]

https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/missing-teenager-tea-wrightfinger-posted-tiktok-video-showing-bruised-and-bloodied-face-last-year/news-story/1bad3f844d9f2ac654688800a7e1017a

A teenager who vanished 11 days ago posted a chilling video of her injured face and revealed details of her troubled past, it has emerged.
Tea Wright-Finger, 19, disappeared on October 16 after a friend dropped her near her Toyota Prado 4WD in Richmond, Far North Queensland.

She hasn’t been seen since despite a desperate hunt by her family, police, search planes and members of the public.

Now a TikTok video has surfaced showing Miss Wright-Finger with a bruised and cut-up face as she cries into the camera.

The clip, posted last year, shows a timelapse of her wounds healing.

“When it’s toxic, it’s toxic,” the caption reads.

It is not clear how she suffered the injuries or if they have any connection to her disappearance, but the video paints the picture of a teenager with a traumatic past.

The cattle station worker also posted a separate TikTok two weeks before she vanished, which said: “I don’t feel so good, I want to go home.”

A 700km-wide search for Miss Wright-Finger is yet to find anything, but police were earlier focusing on the Flinders River area as her phone was briefly switched on there at 9.30am last Tuesday.

She has not used her bank card since she was last seen.

Queensland Police said they were combing through “challenging terrain” and thick riverbank vegetation and hoped to find Miss Wright-Finger “safe and well”.

“The search today and over the weekend is concentrating on the analysis of some mobile phone data,” Inspector Damian Crosby said earlier this week, adding that cops were not sure what had happened to her.

“Obviously we are concerned for Tea’s welfare. We would like to locate her as soon as possible,” he added.

 

[iamshadow21]

Police searching for Tèa Wright-Finger say the car she was last seen in was stolen

• Tèa Wright-Finger was last seen on October 16
• Police say the car she was driving was fraudulently stolen on October 14
• Police say there is no evidence of foul play

 

[iamshadow21]

Why did the friend just drop her off 'near' her vehicle?

I have worked on an outback cattle station in Australia, very remote, however surprised how many people from those vary rural stations knew of each other. Wonder how many other people are at Richmond Downs. Long hours, physically hard work.

From the article I posted the link to directly above:

Locals say Ms Wright-Finger had been at a party at another property the night before she went missing.

So, if this was connected, I guess she and her friend went together in the friend's car? Perhaps she'd left her car at a property line or the head of a driveway, to make the pick-up easier for her friend.

Of course, if she was seen later or the ride with the friend was the next day, it's all moot and possibly completely unconnected.

MOO.

 

[iamshadow21]

Tèa Wright-Finger went to a party in the outback two weekends ago, she's been missing ever since

A bit more info about the search, and movements the night of the party.

 

[evenstevens]

She's so young. So worrying.

 

[Seni]

New details emerge in desperate search for missing teenager as fears mount

‘We just want to confirm that Tea is safe.’

7news.com.au

Inspector Damian Crosby on Thursday revealed the 4WD she had been driving - a 2013 Prado with the registration 210-TLA - had been stolen from Proserpine, in the Whitsundays region, on October 14.

Crosby said the vehicle did not belong to someone known to Wright-Finger and had been stolen “as a result of being obtained through a fraudulent means”.

“Tea is obviously connected to the vehicle and that vehicle was stolen a short time before she was reported missing by her family,” he said.

“Obviously, the fact that the vehicle is stolen is part of an ongoing investigation.

“But I would like to reiterate to Tea or any acquaintance of Tea that our priority remains to locate her safe and well and make sure she’s OK.”

Police have been unable to find the car or confirm which direction it travelled from Richmond.

 

[Seni]

Tèa Wright-Finger went to a party in the outback two weekends ago, she's been missing ever since

It's been 11 days since Ms Wright-Finger was last seen in her blue Toyota Prado outside of Richmond, 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa.

www.abc.net.au

Emergency crews are continuing to scour rural grazing land near Richmond, 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland, in search for missing woman Tèa Wright-Finger.

It's been 11 days since the 19-year-old was last seen in a blue Toyota Prado outside of Richmond on the afternoon of October 16.

(..)
Gordon Graham, area controller for Mount Isa SES, said crews were now searching outlying areas of scrub and pastoral land north-west of Richmond to look for any signs of Ms Wright-Finger.


He said they were focusing on areas between where the car was last reported and the cattle station she worked on.

"We are concentrating on the thick-growth areas. We have covered all the open areas now. We are really getting into the thick country that we have to get in and start walking through it," Mr Graham said.

He said the terrain was variable, and especially rough around the creeks and rivers.

"It is very dry but surprisingly we are coming across lots of waterholes from the storms over the last couple of weeks," he said.

(..)

He said if Ms Wright-Finger was in the scrub she would be struggling in the heat and humidity.

"[She] wouldn't be able to move, staying under shade because now the conditions are very dangerous. At this time, with the period they have been missing, there are concerns," Mr Graham said.

"We are getting storms coming in all the time now. It is getting wet, the humidity, all that is adding up to the time frame of survival."

(article continues)

 

[evenstevens]

No news?

 

[Seni]

Missing Queensland teen Tea Wright-Finger posted TikTok videos

Queensland Police on Monday announced they would 'scale back' search efforts for Queensland teenager Tea Wright-Finger, 19, who went missing in Richmond almost three weeks ago.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Police have been forced to 'scale back' frantic search efforts to locate a teenage girl who vanished in the outback driving a stolen car almost three weeks ago.

Queensland Police and SES volunteers have conducted extensive land and air searches for Tea Wright-Finger, 16, covering hundreds of kilometers after she went missing in Richmond, in far northwest Queensland on October 16.

Neither Tea or a blue Toyota Prado 4WD she has been linked to have been seen since, with the teen posting a string of concerning TikTok videos in the months leading up to her disappearance.

(Article continues)

 

[azure]

Where is Tea originally from? I don't think I've seen this answered anywhere. Did she grow up near the cattle station where she now works?

 

[Seni]

I can't find any updates.

 

[deadfoot13]

I'm very confused, I don't understand whether Tea was allegedly involved with the theft of the vehicle she was driving, or if it was her vehicle that had been reported stolen?

ETA: I see it says the rightful owner isn't known to Tea, so am wondering if she had just purchased it within a day or so of going missing, not realizing that she was purchasing a stolen vehicle?

 

[iamshadow21]

I'm very confused, I don't understand whether Tea was allegedly involved with the theft of the vehicle she was driving, or if it was her vehicle that had been reported stolen?

The way it was written made me think that maybe she bought the car, but the person she bought it from had stolen it or been involved in some kind of deception? It's the word fraud that made me think that maybe it was a nicked car that someone had produced legit looking papers for, but when the cops dug deeper once she went missing, they discovered the fraud. I don't think anyone is suggesting that she stole the car, or even that she knew it was stolen. But I could be wrong. MOO.

 

[deadfoot13]

The way it was written made me think that maybe she bought the car, but the person she bought it from had stolen it or been involved in some kind of deception? It's the word fraud that made me think that maybe it was a nicked car that someone had produced legit looking papers for, but when the cops dug deeper once she went missing, they discovered the fraud. I don't think anyone is suggesting that she stole the car, or even that she knew it was stolen. But I could be wrong. MOO.

That does make sense, thank you!

 

[seageorge]

My family has a cattle property in the Richmond area (Hughenden side) about 50km from Richmond Downs. I just spoke to my brother and he said all the locals are aware of her missing and are looking out for her.

 

[iamshadow21]

Police reveal suspicions about disappearance of 19-year-old station worker

Now this article suggests that maybe she was aware of the fraud around her vehicle and may be in hiding or in danger from those who owned the vehicle? I'm confused.

"[Ms Wright-Finger] did find out the day before [she went missing] that the owners of the vehicle knew where she was — there was a phone call made from Proserpine," he said.

"So there is a chance that was the reason for her taking off the next day."

They also say something about the fact that her car not being found means that she's potentially fine and somewhere out of state. IMO that's a bit of a reach. A nineteen year old going missing without a trace doesn't imply fine to me, but maybe he's privy to information we're not. There is a comment about their investigation being at a dead end, though, so I doubt it.

Weird, and very worrying.

MOO.