Bridget Flack: Fears body found in bushland is missing Melbourne woman

A body found in bushland in Melbourne on Friday evening could be a missing woman who hasn’t been seen for almost two weeks.

There are fears a body found in bushland in Melbourne is missing woman Bridget Flack.

Hundreds of people have been searching for the 28-year-old after she was last seen on November 30.

Victoria Police will prepare a report for coroner following the discovery of the body, a police spokeswoman said on Saturday.

“While the body is yet to be formally identified, police are investigating if it is linked to the disappearance of missing woman Bridget Flack,” she said.

The woman’s body was found in Kew East in bushland at Willsmere-Chandler Park about 5.05pm on Friday.

A body found at Willsmere-Chandler Park in East Kew on Friday could be missing woman Bridget Flack, police have said.

Hundreds of volunteers have been searching for Bridget Flack, who went missing on November 30.

Ms Flack was last known to be in Kew near the Yarra River, with phone records placing her location there at 2pm on the day she went missing.

A few hours before that, she was seen on CCTV visiting a Dan Murphy’s in Collingwood around 10.30am before texting a friend she was feeding the ducks at the Yarra Bend Park.

A search party began combing the river searching for any sign of Ms Flack on Tuesday.

Another volunteer search had been organised for Saturday — the day after the body was found.

A Facebook group called ‘Have You Seen Bridget?’ grew to almost 7000 members who have been using the internet to organise and try to find the missing woman.

Friends and community members have shared touching tributes to Ms Flack on social media on Saturday morning.

She has been praised for her beautiful poetry and writing.

Bridget Flack once told a close friend that if anything ever happened to her, she’d like people to read her poetry.

Here are a few of her poems: pic.twitter.com/sx2NJjMI6P

— Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) December 11, 2020

I’m so sorry, Bridget. We failed you. 💙💗💙💗 #bridgetflack pic.twitter.com/E5eyQMWc0F

— Rosie Thomas OAM 💪🏼💕 (@1RosieThomas) December 11, 2020

On Thursday, Ms Flack’s sister Angela Pucci Love said she had been seeking mental health treatment but was not offered a spot at a hospital until two days after she went missing.

She said her younger sister was “quite vulnerable” and had been hit hard by coronavirus.

“She is a transgender woman and I think by nature that makes her a little more vulnerable in the community so we are very concerned about that,” she said.

“She had reached out to me about three weeks ago to say she needed extra help and that was part of the reason we’d been speaking daily … she had an awareness to know she wasn’t feeling great and we were working hard to get her that extra help.”

The exact circumstances surrounding the woman’s death are yet to be determined but police are not treating it as suspicious.

According to the National LGBTI Health Alliance’s 2020 Health Snapshot, transgender people are nearly 11 times more likely to attempt suicide in their lifetimes compared to the general population.

They are more than 10 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression.

“These health outcomes are directly related to experiences of stigma, prejudice, discrimination and abuse on the basis of being LGBTI,” the report said.