Coral Adventurer Passenger Left on Island Dies

Eighty-year-old Suzanne Rees died after being left behind on Lizard Island during a Coral Adventurer cruise and was found dead the next day in remote terrain. Family and reports say Rees fell ill on a Cook’s Look hike, was asked to descend unescorted, and the ship reportedly departed around 3:40 p.m. without an apparent passenger headcount, not noticing she was missing for about five hours. A late-night land-and-air search was mounted and a helicopter crew spotted her body the following day roughly 50 metres off the hiking trail; it appeared she had fallen from a slope or cliff. Queensland police described the death as sudden and non‑suspicious and a coroner will investigate while the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and police are also probing why she was not accounted for. Coral Expeditions says it is cooperating, has apologised and is supporting Rees’s family; the company canceled the remainder of the voyage and has offered passengers refunds, and Rees’s daughter Katherine has called it a “failure of care and common sense.”