Outback search for missing woman scaled down

Richard Dinnen - Queensland Editor | October 31, 2022

Police have scaled down the search for a 19-year-old woman missing in outback Queensland since October 16.

Tea Wright-Finger was last seen in the Richmond area, about 500 kilometres west of Townsville and 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa.

Police said she was driving a blue Toyota Prado that had been stolen a few days earlier from Proserpine in a fraud-related offence.

An extensive search has continued for the past ten days involving SES volunteers, police, landholders, and council personnel.

Fixed wing aircraft and the Queensland Government helicopter conducted an air search, supported by locally contracted mustering helicopters.

The search has been focussed on the Flinders River area close to the Richmond township, based on information from Tea’s mobile phone which was briefly switched on the morning of October 18.

Police said Tea is understood to have a residential address in the Northern Territory and some connections with the Queensland city of Bundaberg.

She was employed in the pastoral industry, and police made inquiries at stations in the Richmond area, where she had some connections.

Tea was last seen around 3pm on October 16 in Coalbrook Road, Richmond, when she was dropped off by a friend at the 4WD she had been driving.

There has been no sign of Tea or the 4WD since. It’s a blue 2013 Toyota Prado with Queensland registration 210 TLA.

The investigation into her disappearance is continuing. Police continue to appeal for anyone with information on her whereabouts to come forward.