A local farmer who was first to spot a university student missing for six days in the Gold Coast hinterland has described the moment she heard a voice “calling out” over the roar of a nearby waterfall.

Yang Chen, 26, vanished in heavy rain while bushwalking with a male companion in Tallebudgera Valley last Wednesday.

Local landowner Lyn Cook volunteered to take police divers to several waterholes in the area yesterday, but told ABC Radio Brisbane she had “no expectation of finding her alive”.

“We got to Gorge Falls … the police divers were starting to put their gear on … and I climbed onto a ledge that overlooks the pool to monitor them,” she said.

As the waterfall “thundered” in her ear, she said she suddenly became aware of a voice calling in the distance, before spotting the missing woman.

“I said to the police, ‘There’s someone calling out’, and I could see someone on the ledge up behind the trees,” she said.

“I said, ‘Have you got search people up there?’ They said, ‘No’. I said, ‘Well, there’s a lady up there on the shelf behind the trees’.

“They just dropped their gear, they bounded up onto the ledge with me, they peered out, and said, ‘That’s her’.”

Ms Cook said she grew fearful when Ms Chen made a move towards the edge of the rock shelf — about 30 metres above the base of Gorge Falls.

“I kept yelling out, ‘Stay, stay’, and eventually she took on board what I was saying, and she sat down,” she said.

“They said they were getting a helicopter and I said, ‘You’ll kill us all if you try to get her out of this bush in a helicopter.’ So they cancelled the helicopter.”

After the police dive squad scaled a cliff face to reach the woman and bring her to safety, Ms Cook said she gave her a “big hug”.

“She just had this weak smile on her face. I went up to her and said, ‘Give me a hug, we’re just so delighted to see you’.

Key points

• Lyn Cook says she spotted Yang Chen and pointed her out to rescuers
• She says the police dive squad scaled a cliff face to reach her
• Ms Cook says she gave Ms Chen a hug and that she “still had go in her”

Source
ABC News