A Colombian-born businessman who was lost for 10 days in dense scrub on an Australian island was so ecstatic to be found that he asked one of his rescuers to marry him. Katie Avery, 22, was among hundreds of State Emergency Service volunteers who, along with police, army and other rescue workers, had scoured Moreton Island off the eastern state of Queensland for drug company executive Ricardo Sirutis.
Sirutis was found on Wednesday, disorientated, cold and dehydrated. He told rescuers he had had no water for the past five days. He was found just three kilometres from where he went missing. But Sirutis, an executive with drug company Pfizer, was well enough to joke with rescuers about buying them a beer in Brazil, where he now lives, and to propose marriage to Avery. She sat with him until paramedics arrived. “I asked him whether he had a wife and family, just to keep him talking,” Avery told reporters. “He said no, and he then wanted me to be his wife.” Avery, who is already engaged, said she did not answer.