A 75-year-old German pensioner was found alive in the Thai jungle seven days after she disappeared during a walk outside her hotel.
The woman, who is believed to have Alzheimer’s, was identified as Barbara Elisabeth Monika Glag Lange. According to Thai police reports, she disappeared while leaving the Maikhao Palm Beach Resort after returning from a woodland walk on Phuket Island.
A witness told police that Ms. Barbara had said she would go for a walk to a house in the mountains, but she never came back and was reported missing by the resort’s staff.
CCTV footage showed the woman had left her room and then walked down a nearby road into the woodland at around 8:00 a.m. on May 9.
Police officers launched a massive search with dozens of officers and search helicopters in the local surroundings infested with dangerous wildlife, forests, and beaches. Hundreds of residents and tourists were interviewed to find the tourist’s whereabouts.
However, it was not the authorities but a boy from a mountain village who found Mrs. Barbara while walking through the dense woodland. After the young Thai man returned and informed his relatives that he had spotted the foreigner in the jungle, they called the police.
Agents found Mrs. Barbara that afternoon in a stream in Phuket’s vast Sirinat National Park. The woman was exhausted and had no food or water but was alive, Lt. Col. Ekachai Siri from the Phuket Tourist Police confirmed.
The woman was rushed to the hospital for health checks. Authorities also asked a German interpreter to interview her.
Police reports said the woman was believed to have drunk water from mountain streams to survive. Also, she was found lying in the water, which may have helped her stay cool when it was hot during the day, as the island’s temperature reached 35 degrees last week.
Lt. Col. Ekachai Siri said they also believed Ms. Barbara walked between the two beaches during the day before heading back into the jungle to sleep.
Ms. Barbara was the second German national to go missing in Thailand in May. Earlier this month, Leon Isiman Samuels, 21, was rescued after taking a shortcut in the forest next to Nai Thon beach and getting trapped between two large rocks.
