Missing teen surfer ‘miraculously' found alive on remote Australian island
Darcy Deefholts, 19, failed to return home after heading out for a surf off a beach in Wooli, a coastal town 480km north of Sydney on Wednesday.
His father, Terry Deefholts, a real estate agent from Grafton, raised an alarm on social media asking for locals to help in finding his son as he "feared the worst".
"HELP - I NEED BOATS, BEACH WALKERS, DRONES AND 4WDs and PLANES AT FIRST LIGHT," he wrote in an emotional plea.
"My boy Darcy is still missing. Marine Rescue searched tonight from Bare Point to Pebbly Beach at sea. They have been stood down for the night but expect they will be back early to resume the search," he wrote on Facebook
"I am asking anyone with a seaworthy vessel to please meet me at the main Wooli boat ramp and take me to sea to help with the search.
"We are overwhelmed by the community efforts in the search so far. There is only one thing we want now - our beloved boy to be found safe," he added.
The New South Wales police said they officials were alerted by the teenager's family after he failed to return home. Police launched a land and water search around Wooli Beach and the surfer was located safety on a small island the next day.
The teen was found marooned the North Solitary Island, located about 12km off the coast of Wooli, according to reports. He was taken to a medical centre for treatment.
Terry Deefholts told the Daily Telegraph that his son's survival was a 'one-in-a-million miracle'.
'I haven't had the chance to talk to him yet, I'm just so over the moon,' the father said, adding: "I'm still just processing everything. We've had no sleep and it has been a lot to deal with."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Driver who killed father and injured son, 6, sent 44 Snapchat messages while driving 100km/h before fatal crash
A young man had his head buried in his phone and, when he looked up, he had killed a beloved father and injured his son, a court has been told. Peter Agius sent 44 Snapchats while driving just 12km at 100km/h down a busy Victorian country road in early 2023. He received 41 replies, including one 20 seconds before the deadly crash. His victim, Adam Sutton, had just picked up his six-year-old son from school when their car was struck by Agius's vehicle in January 2023. Sutton died at the scene while his son was taken to hospital with critical injuries. The boy was left with a permanent brain injury. County Court judge Kevin Doyle labelled Agius's offending as 'extreme inattention' as he jailed him on Thursday for at least six years. 'A life was lost and a young child's life has been damaged by your actions,' the judge told Agius, aged 23, who cried upon learning his fate. Agius had fought the two charges – of culpable driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury – during a jury trial in regional Victoria. He claimed to have dropped his sunglasses while driving and looked down to pick them up, when the crash occurred. His lawyers argued Agius should be convicted of dangerous driving causing death and serious injury, not the more serious charges. But prosecutors argued Agius was not paying attention to the road because he was sending and receiving dozens of Snapchat messages while driving, which was grossly negligent behaviour. Analysis of Agius's phone revealed he sent and received 85 Snapchat messages while driving about 12km from his worksite to the crash scene at the intersection of Traralgon-Maffra and Farmers roads in Glengarry. A jury ultimately convicted Agius of the culpable and negligent driving charges in April 2025. The judge on Thursday said Agius was 'an accident waiting to happen' and he would have seen Sutton waiting to turn right if he was paying attention. 'The duty of every driver is to pay proper attention to the road – you didn't do that,' he said. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Agius had a history of dangerous driving, including a fine and loss of licence for dangerous driving while being pursued by police in 2022. In 2020, he was ordered to undertake a road trauma awareness course for careless driving. In February 2024, he was caught driving while on bail for the offending which caused Sutton's death, despite having been banned. 'Twice before this catastrophic collision, you had engaged in incredibly stupid driving offences,' the judge said. 'You should have understood the basic duties of driving from these experiences, but you did not.' Sutton's family and friends told the court he was 'deeply loved as a husband, father, son, brother and friend to many people', Doyle said. Leanne Sutton said 1,000 people attended her son's funeral, with 2,000 watching online, and his death had left 'an enormous void' in the lives of all who knew him. His father, Ray Sutton, said the pain and distress caused by Adam's death was 'indescribable' and not a day went by that he did not think about 'the life sentence we've been given'. Agius was jailed for a maximum of nine years and eight months. He has served 122 days of that sentence and will be eligible for parole after serving six years.
BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
Peter Falconio: 'Everyone knows who he is, he will never be forgotten'
West Yorkshire's picturesque Holme Valley lies around 10,000 miles from the dry, dusty expanse of Australia's Northern Territory where backpacker Peter Falconio was shot and killed 24 years ago this despite the passage of time, the 28-year-old has never been forgotten in the rural but tight-knit community where he grew up. Outside the Post Office in New Mill, about six miles south of Huddersfield, a plain wooden bench stands as a tribute to Peter bench - dedicated to "the memory of our son" - is sited outside the business his family used to run and not far from the Falconio offers a place to sit and remember Peter, but it also offers a tangible memorial to a young man whose body has never been killer, Bradley Murdoch, who died on Tuesday, has never revealed what he did with the 28-year-old's remains after he shot him dead on a remote road near Alice Springs. In a statement, the Falconios said they felt "relief" at hearing of Murdoch's death, adding that they "still hold out hope" their son's remains can one day be Mill resident Angela Holmes, who has known the Falconios for most of her life, recalls how the 2001 murder "devastated everybody" in the community."He was a lovely bloke who came from a lovely family," the 62-year-old says."People feel sorry for the family having no closure. (Murdoch) knew he was dying and so he should have done the right thing and told of where he put Peter's body."Peter will never be forgotten. Every time you mention his name, everyone knows who he is." John Keddy, 76, moved to New Mill a year before Mr Falconio's death and regarded his family as "nice and cheerful".He too remembers a "state of shock and sadness" affecting the locals."When it's someone in your own community, you never think it's going to happen, something like that". Mr Falconio was travelling across the Australian Outback with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, also from Huddersfield, in July vehicle was pulled over by mechanic and truck driver Murdoch near the town of Barrow Creek, who shot the University of Brighton graduate and tied up Ms Lees, before she later managed to escape after hiding in bushland. Murdoch was convicted of the killing in December 2005 by a unanimous jury verdict and was also found guilty of the assault and attempted kidnap of Ms Lees. He appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction and would never admit responsibility for his actions. Neil Atkinson, who was news editor at The Huddersfield Examiner at the time of the killing, recalls the world's media converging on Holme Valley's "very quiet" villages. "It was almost like a TV drama being played out in real life," he recalls. "It was a murder on the other side of the world, but it was people who came from Huddersfield involved. People were avidly following it."Huddersfield is and always has been a close-knit and friendly community and if something happens to someone from Huddersfield, they react with surprise, shock and anger, whatever it happens to be."Mr Atkinson, who worked at the Examiner for 42 years, believes it was the "unusual" circumstances of the murder which kept it intermittently in the news headlines over the two decades that followed."Most murders you'd find there is a motive and most of them are connected to the victim," he adds."This was such a strange scenario with this young couple many thousands of miles from home enjoying what you'd think was a dream holiday, and then something so terrible happens to them." Damian Brook, a Conservative councillor for Holme Valley South, worked in Huddersfield for West Yorkshire Police at the time and remembers the case well. "Peter was well known in the Holme Valley community and the shock did affect people in the area," he says."Clearly it's very disappointing for the family that they weren't told where the remains were. Until you're able to bury someone properly, it's very difficult to get that closure."The Falconios said that despite hoping Murdoch would reveal where their son's remains were they had little faith in him ever doing so. While his death has "lifted a weight" on the family, their questions remain painfully unanswered. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Australia's Qantas obtains court order to prevent third-party access to stolen data
July 17 (Reuters) - Australia's Qantas Airways ( opens new tab said on Thursday it has obtained an interim injunction in the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court to prevent the stolen data from being accessed or published by anyone, including by any third parties. Earlier this month, a cyber hacker broke into a database containing the personal information of millions of Qantas customers, Australia's biggest such breach in years. Similar incidents took place in 2022, with telecommunications giant Optus and health insurer Medibank ( opens new tab. There continues to be no evidence that any personal data stolen from Qantas has been released, the company said in the statement. The country's flag carrier said that last week it had contacted the 5.7 million affected customers, outlining the specific fields of their personal data that were compromised. "No credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were stored in the compromised system and therefore have not been accessed," Qantas said. The airline operator said it is working closely with several bodies, such as the Australian Federal Police, the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the Australian Cyber Security Centre, to thoroughly investigate criminal activity surrounding the breach.
