The teen was found by search and rescue members near the Cotter reserve area. Ms Bautista crashed the car on Saturday on an unmarked road. State Emergency Service members found the car, but it was not until more respondents arrived that they found Ms Bautista's hand raised on a nearby ridge. More than 100 people took part in the search. Kathleen Bautista. It is believed Ms Bautista survived by drinking water from the creek, however she did not have food for seven days. Ms Bautista was taken to hospital suffering dehydration. Her father called her rescue ‘a miracle’. “I'm just ecstatic. I''m just really happy and over the moon, that Kat's been found,” he told Seven News. There were tears of joy at Dickson on Friday as her boyfriend Sajana Abeygunawardena, and friends were told the news that she had been found. Constable Lachlan Ryan said under an hour into the search, an SES crew found Ms Bautista's car crashed down a tall embankment into a creek. She wasn't with the vehicle, but just as a fresh search was being planned, a policeman noticed a waving hand on a ridge on the other side of the gulley. "She'd probably managed to get several hundred metres from the car," he said. Constable Ryan said she was dehydrated, injured from the accident and starting to suffer from exposure, but lucid. "I had a clear conversation with her. She was chatty and even started telling jokes. She was relieved and she thanked us profusely. She was actually, despite her circumstances, in very good spirits.
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