Missing South Australian grandmother Colleen South has been found dead in a paddock in rural Victoria, her loved ones have confirmed.
Tonight, her family confirmed the news they had been fearing ever since she disappeared.
“We are heartbroken and in shock,” Courtney Rose, who has been providing regular updates on efforts to find South, posted to the Bring Colleen South home Facebook page.
“Colleen’s body has unfortunately been located in a paddock tonight, five kilometres from where her car was found,” she wrote.
“We don’t have any answers on what has happened yet, but we will update you all once we do.
“We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for your endless support, calls and messages for the past five weeks. We are so grateful.”
Police said a farmer found a body in a paddock south of Mackies Road, on Swan Hill-Charlton Road, Bunguluke, about 4pm.
They said it was yet to be formally identified and investigations were ongoing.
South’s family had been convinced foul play was involved in her disappearance, saying she was on her way to visit relatives in Swan Hill when “something terrible happened”.
“It appears that she’s got out of her car and walked about 20 metres away, sat under a tree,” South’s niece Farah Mak told Today last month.
“Her journal was there and later my mother found her pen at the back of her journal (with) the note ‘help me please.'”
Mak said the note looked like it had been written in a hurry.
“We believe that she sat under that tree, (has) written in her journal, someone has come up to her, whether they were just driving past and potentially she has got in the car… and from there that’s where we feel that foul play is involved.”
At the time, Superintendent Rebecca Olsen said South’s disappearance was not being treated as suspicious and the note might have been written before she vanished.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is suspicious and will take everything into consideration,” Olsen said.
Tonight’s development comes a day after South’s family shared fresh CCTV footage of the grandmother at Sunraysia Petroleum at Berriwillock on July 3.
Previously, she had been seen driving a 2006 silver Hyundai Getz sedan at Renown Park on July 1 about 3.30pm.
Police and the State Emergency Service had used drones, horses and dogs to search dense bushland in the area where South’s car crashed, to no avail.
