Police investigating suspicious vehicle fire at Inskip

A young Qld biomedical student and her fiance are devastated after their car went up in flames while they were camping at Rainbow Beach.

A university student’s 2002 silver Mitsubishi Mirage was destroyed by fire at Inskip on May 10.

A young Queensland couple is shocked after their car was destroyed in a suspected arson attack during a camping trip north of Noosa.

Biomedical student Hailey Hald and her fiance Timothy Dykstra were sleeping at the SS Dorrigo camping area at Rainbow Beach when Ms Hald’s 2002 silver Mitsubishi Mirage went up in flames nearby in the early hours of May 10.

Mr Dykstra said he lives in his ute, and Ms Hald had “come up to visit on a uni break, just to relax” while he was in the area.

He said they awoke to discover her car burning, at which point Ms Hald received a call from police notifying her of the incident.

“She was just bawling on the ground,” Mr Dykstra said.

“The fire was big, it was actually running about five metres into the campground.

“Hailey also works as a carer for the old and vulnerable, and actually uses her car to transport people around for work, which she’s obviously now not able to do.”

Police confirmed they were called to a suspicious car fire on Inskip Point Road about 1.30am and investigations were underway.

Hailey’s GoFundMe campaign said she is a biomedical student in the final weeks of her semester, and is “incredibly stressed already”, working as a carer for the old and vulnerable. Picture: Hailey Hald.

“I got her to stop crying about four hours later, but everytime she thinks about it she just starts bawling again,” Mr Dykstra said.

A fundraiser has been started on GoFundMe to “help lighten the burden of replacing her car and valuables out of her own pocket”.

“Nothing (in her car) is irreplaceable, but she lost her university notes, her (Nintendo) Switch, lab coats, university books,” Mr Dykstra said.

“The car was only insured for third party, as something like this would seem unimaginable,” the fundraiser reads.

Mr Dykstra said the couple did not see or hear anything suspicious leading up to the incident, “but there were a lot of P platers at the campground, so I guess one of them might’ve done it, I’m not sure”.

Mr Dykstra is urging anyone with dashcam footage of the incident to contact himself or the police.

He kickstarted the fundraiser by donating $1000 to the cause.

“A few of my mates have chipped in as well,” he said, which brought the total to $1200 on Tuesday, with a target of $7500.

Originally published as Police investigating suspicious vehicle fire at Inskip