It has been announced that Katie Crouch, the 25-year-old daughter of New South Wales trainers Karen Crouch and Andrew Crouch who was reported missing in Nepal after last weekend’s earthquake, has been located.
Crouch was located in Nepal on Thursday morning (Australian time) and is safe. The family would like to thank everyone for their concern and help with sharing her story.
Crouch left Australia with her boyfriend a fortnight ago and was expecting to be away for a total of five months. The family had not heard from Crouch since Saturday, when she had contacted them on holiday before planning to head off into the mountains the following day.
Leading driver Lauren Panella is a good friend of Katie’s and had asked the industry to spread the word about Katie and share the story via social media to highlight the fact that she was missing in hopes that it would assist in the search and help locate the young Australian.
“Karen is struggling to deal with everything that has happened over the past couple of days and according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) there isn’t a lot that can be done at this stage,” Panella had said before Katie was located.
“What DFAT did say though was to keep trying to ring her phone and to spread the word that she is missing via social media to raise awareness of her situation after the devastating earthquake that has caused so much damage.”
Crouch was one of 549 Australians registered as travelling in Nepal and officials are working under challenging conditions to locate all those in the country. Disruptions to telecommunications, transport and tourist infrastructure is making it difficult for those that are in Nepal.
(With files from HRNSW)