“I’m 18, and you can’t stop me!” Piper James told her father before she set off backpacking on the other side of the Pacific Ocean – but the young Canadian woman’s trip to Australia ended in tragedy and trauma.
Early on Monday, the now-19-year-old was found dead on a beach on the world heritage-listed sand island and tourist destination of K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) off the Queensland coast, surrounded by a pack of dingoes near the Maheno shipwreck.
A postmortem into her death was to begin on Wednesday, with Queensland police saying a coroner would examine whether she drowned in dangerous waters off the island’s eastern beaches or was killed by the wild canids – as well as other “potential possibilities”.
Writing that he felt a “need and want to share some memories”, Todd James posted a series of pictures on social media of his daughter with friends and family enjoying the Canadian outdoors on inflatable rafts, snowboards, dirt bikes, buggies and fighting fires – she “loved and was proud” to have worked for the British Columbia wildfire services.
Another series of pictures showed Piper with a friend from Canada who was travelling with her through Australia. The friend had been working with her at a backpackers for six weeks prior to her death and was left “highly traumatised” by it, Queensland police said.
“Our hearts are shattered as we share the tragic loss of our beautiful daughter, Piper,” Todd wrote.
“We will always remember her infectious laugh and her kind spirit. I admired her strength and determination to go after her dreams.”
Canadian media reported her mother, Angela James, as saying Piper was “having the trip of a lifetime”.
“She was very adventurous. She loved motocross. She loved camping, she loved swimming, and she loved surfing. She wanted to learn to surf,” in Australia, local media reported.
Speaking to a reporter from The Canadian Press, Angela James – from Vancouver Island – said she last spoke to Piper early on Saturday morning. Her daughter called before going for a swim to say that she loved her parents and was “thankful for everything they had done”, she said.
“She was just so special. She was just so precious. She was so empathetic. Always worried about other people,” said Angela, adding that her daughter loved animals.
She said her daughter had fallen “in love” with K’gari.
The last known sighting of Piper alive was at about 5am on Monday, when she told friends and colleagues at the backpackers that she was headed to the beach.
Her parents described her as a “brave little girl” who dreamed of being a pilot like her father, according to the Coast Reporter.
Todd wrote that his daughter had been glad he was “on board for her trip to Australia”.
“‘Lol’, she said, ‘Because I’m 18, and you can’t stop me!’,” he recalled.
“Mostly, I loved hearing about and seeing the bonds and friendships she was developing as she grew into her beautiful self.”
The grieving father wrote that his daughter would “work hard so she could play hard”.
“So many are going to miss you, my precious little baby girl. Maybe gone, but how can we ever forget you? The pain … RIP my baby.”
Her grandmother also wrote of her broken heart for her “precious granddaughter”. Penny Vanalstine Marshall said James was “the most happy spirited girl” with “a spirit of unbridled joy and courage”.
James was “a beacon of strength and fearless adventure” who was “so kind to everyone she met”, she wrote.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said James’s death was “really troubling” and that his government was “determined to get to the bottom” of what caused it.
“We’ve got to acknowledge that a young woman, in the prime of her life, has lost her life,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Nineteen years of age, and doing what she loved, on a trip of a lifetime – and to not go home to her family is really tough”.
Crisafulli said the “next step” was for authorities to conduct an autopsy.
“I think that’s really important, and while that happens, we should be respectful and we should acknowledge a tragedy for the family, for the broader community on Fraser / K’gari”.
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