Wild pig fears in search for man
THERE are fears an elderly man missing in rugged outback may have been attacked and eaten by wild pigs as police give an update on the challenging search efforts hindering a discovery.
Victor Horne, 80, was last seen around 11 days ago at the Karma Waters Station where he has lived alone in a bush camp for the past 31 years.
His camp, on the banks of the Mitchell River about 2.5 hours from Mount Molloy, is set on 45,000 hectares of “tough, tough country” with the property’s owner believing the chances of finding him alive were slim.
His vehicles have been untouched and his 1975 Land Rover was found four kilometres from his camp on Monday.
Karma Waters owner Alan Pedersen, 62, said Mr Horne may have become disorientated trying to take a shortcut back to his car in searing 39degree heat.
He joined an exhaustive aerial helicopter search with more than 20 police and SES crews scouring the terrain on foot, only to find nothing.
“He’s still missing, if he’s out there he’s certainly not alive,” Mr Pedersen said.
“He would never survive in this country for more than two days in the heat.”
Mr Horne was known to walk barefoot with limited clothing and lived a hermit life.
“If the pigs got hold of him then his body would have been
pretty much consumed within three or four days,” Mr Pedersen said. “We’re looking at trying to find a few bones at the moment and we are going to do one more sweep possibly on Thursday.
“We need to exhaust all avenues for the coroner and for ourselves. We need to know that he is not there.”
A police SES and local volunteer search will continue with police plotting a different aerial grid today.
“An area that the chopper was unable to search properly is being mapped by search coordinators for searching by ground crews,” a Queensland Police spokeswoman said.
“The search area is very isolated and has very challenging terrain which is complicated by the heat.”
Mr Horne would be contending with feral pigs and wild dogs on the property, according to Mr Pedersen, without drinking water or food.
“Pigs are probably his biggest threat,” he said.
“The water in the gullies are highly toxic as well so if you drank water out of it you'd be dead within 24 hours.”