Her daughter has shed light on the heartbreaking details 😱

An 80-year-old Australian woman was found dead after being abandoned by her cruise ship on a remote island during what was supposed to be a luxury 60-day voyage around Australia.

Suzanne Rees of New South Wales had joined a hiking party on Lizard Island, located on the Great Barrier Reef, as part of the first stop on the Coral Adventurer cruise. Balcony room tickets for the voyage cost approximately $86,400 per person.

**A Tragic Sequence of Events**

According to her daughter Katherine, Rees fell ill during the hill climb on an extremely hot day and was told to head back down—unescorted. The ship then departed, apparently without conducting a passenger count.

“At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone,” Katherine told The Australian. “From the little we have been told, it seems there was a failure of care and common sense.”

Katherine expressed hope that a coronial inquiry would determine “what the company should have done that might have saved Mum’s life.”

**Search and Recovery**

The Coral Adventurer, a 306-foot ship with capacity for 120 passengers and 48 crew, raised the alarm about Rees’ disappearance on Saturday, October 25. A rescue helicopter launched at 12:45 a.m. the following morning, with Rees’ body discovered later that day.

Queensland Police are treating the death as “sudden and non-suspicious,” though Rees’ family believes the cruise company failed in their duty of care.

**Company Response**

Mark Fifield, Coral Expeditions’ chief executive, acknowledged the “tragic death” in a statement, saying the company launched a search and rescue operation and is “deeply sorry that this has occurred.”

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is investigating “the circumstances surrounding why the passenger may not have been accounted for during boarding.”

As investigations continue, questions remain about how an elderly passenger could be left behind on a remote island during what should have been a carefully supervised excursion.