Fears over graduate missing in Fiji for seven days
FEARS were growing last night for a 23year-old British woman who has not been seen for a week after arriving in Fiji.
Graduate lydia O’Sullivan has been spending two years travelling and working around the world.
She had been working as a hostel receptionist in Auckland, New Zealand, and travelled to Fiji on February 26 for a holiday.
Her mother Jackie O’Sullivan, who is anxiously waiting for news back home in Cumbria, said she last heard from her daughter on Friday last week when she sent a WhatsApp message from the Pacific state. She had arrived at a hostel in the town of Nadi but has been out of touch since.
Mrs O’Sullivan and her husband Eugene, 60, contacted police in Cumbria on Thursday after becoming increasingly concerned about their daughter, pictured, who usually sends messages on a daily basis.
The mother of three said that her daughter was used to working and travelling abroad alone.
‘There’s a record that she has left the hostel in Fiji on the 28th and that’s the last time she messaged me,’ said Mrs O’Sullivan. ‘We use WhatsApp and I’ve heard nothing since she texted me on the morning of the 28th.’ It was out of character for her ‘not to say’ if she was going on a trip and would be out of touch, her mother said.
She added: ‘We are just hoping she has gone off on one of these boat trip adventures and she’s going to land back and go crazy at us all for panicking.’
Mrs O’Sullivan, a carer, said the authorities in Fiji had checked the hostel and inquiries were being made in the island nation.
Miss O’Sullivan had booked to return to New Zealand on March 17.
During her time abroad the graduate of the University of the Arts, in london, has taught English in India and Vietnam, worked on a farm in Australia and at a hostel in New Zealand.
She returned home in April last year for her father’s 60th birthday and then resumed her travels in the summer. Cumbria Police described Miss O’Sullivan as around 5ft tall with blue eyes, long brown hair and a petite build.