How Bruce Martin found Julie Schutt in bushland near Streaky Bay
A Streaky Bay man has told how his morning surf turned into a Mother’s Day “miracle”, after he stumbled across Queensland mum Julie Schutt.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The first person to lay eyes on Queensland mother Julie Schutt since she vanished from a small west coast town has told of the moment he realised he’d stumbled upon the missing woman.
About 8am on Mother’s Day morning, Streaky Bay man Bruce Martin was driving to his favourite local surf break when he spotted a woman emerge from dense pine trees on the side of the road and flag him down.
“I was just going around the corner and she sort of just appeared on the side of the road,” Mr Martin told The Advertiser outside the caravan he calls home in Streaky Bay.
“She just came out and she had a stick in her hand and she was waving.
“I’ve gone past and thought ‘well that looks a lot like that woman’. She had quite a distinctive jumper on.
“It was a bit freaky.”
Mr Martin, 64, said another local, who was driving along Back Beach Rd, also spotted Ms Schutt on the side of the road and turned around.
They then saw Ms Schutt, who had been missing for a week after walking out of town on May 7, walk towards a nearby farmhouse, looking for water.
“By the time we got back there she had walked off the road and walked towards the farmhouse,” Mr Martin said.
He then drove onto the nearby farm to help Ms Schutt.
“All she wanted was a drink,” he said.
“I gave her my water bottle and she grabbed that and said something about a hose, which might have had something to do with the house.
“I think she was trying to get a drink up there but everything had been turned off.
“She just grabbed the water and I think she said ‘leave me’ and just sort of walked off with the water and towards the house.
“She got the water, said a couple of things and kind of just walked away.”
He said Ms Martin looked “dishevelled” when she emerged from the trees.
“She was covered in bushes and it looked like she’d spent a week out in the scrub,” he said.
Mr Martin, who has lived at Streaky Bay for about 40 years, said emergency services arrived about five minutes later.
“We sort of left and went for a surf after that,” Mr Martin said.
A large-scale air and land search was launched to find Ms Schutt, who was visiting South Australia with her husband Clifford when she walked out of town.
“The search was amazing,” Mr Martin said.
Ms Schutt’s husband said she had walked towards the noise on the road before she was found.
“Eventually she came across ... somebody and then they rang the police,” he said.
Mr Schutt said his wife told him she went for walk to clear her head when she got lost and disoriented.
“It was the hardest week I’ve ever had to have,” he said.
On Monday, police arrived at Streaky Bay hospital, where Ms Schutt is recovering, to interview her.
On Sunday, Ms Schutt’s husband said his wife being found was a “miracle”.
“Miracles do happen,” he said.
“It’s great to have her back.”
‘Surely this is enough to declare a drought in SA, Premier?’
An intense dust storm north of Adelaide has farmers asking if the dry, red dirt filling the skies across the Mid-North is proof enough that SA should be declared in drought.
Read more
Flinders Private Hospital operator in receivership with $1.4bn debts
Healthscope, which runs 37 hospitals nationally – four in SA – is in receivership, with thousands of jobs in doubt.
Read more