Missing woman's reappearance from forest baffles police

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Police in Australia have admitted they are baffled by the case of Shannon Leah Fraser, who went missing in dense rainforest and stayed alive for 17 days by eating fish and insects before emerging 30m from where she disappeared.

Despite a massive operation involving helicopters, quad bikes and methodical searching through the area in northeast Australia, authorities were unable to locate Fraser, 30, who was eventually spotted by a banana farmer as she reappeared alone and almost naked.

The mother of three was found on Wednesday at 8am 30m from the popular Golden Hole swimming spot in northern Queensland, where she went missing after a picnic with her partner. "I don't know about miracles, but this is certainly pretty unique that a person has been able to survive in that terrain and that environment for almost 17 days," said Rhys Newton, a Queensland police inspector. He said that authorities were perplexed as to how Fraser was able to go undetected then emerge from the centre of the search zone.

Fraser has yet to speak publicly about her ordeal and is being treated in hospital for shock and badly burnt skin, parts of which had reportedly turned black. She reportedly told her family that she had lived off fish from the creek and insects, and had spent three days lying in the water to relieve her burns.

She said she cried herself to sleep each night and thought of her children - Jacob, 15, India, 9, and Takirah, 11 - to motivate herself to persevere.

When she finally emerged she was covered in scratches and insect bites and had lost almost 16kg.

Referring to the television weight loss programme and the survival expert, her brother, Dylan Fraser, told a local paper: "It's Biggest Loser meets Bear Grylls."

He added: "She was that exhausted, she couldn't walk, she just felt like giving up. The trees ripped off her clothes - she just stayed strong, and made it out."

According to Heath Cassady, her partner, the couple had gone to the forest to "chill out" after several days of heavy drinking. He said he had left her sitting alone at a picnic spot near the swimming hole, but returned five or 10 minutes later and found that she was gone. After she was found, Fraser told him that she had disappeared after following the river and then climbing up a mountain ridge before becoming lost in thick jungle.

"I was worried a croc had got her," he told the Courier Mail.

"No one thought she'd hike all the way up into the mountains. She got a long way up."

Authorities had all but given up hope of Fraser's survival and believed she may have been eaten by a crocodile or been assaulted or kidnapped.

Police will investigate whether she somehow left the area and returned, or whether they missed her during their search.

Her brother said she returned to the area by following a series of coloured markers left in the rainforest by the search teams.