{"id":248025,"date":"2026-01-23T15:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:29:21","slug":"canadian-teen-who-died-in-australia-remembered-for-infectious-laugh-and-adventurous-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248025\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian teen who died in Australia remembered for ‘infectious laugh’ and adventurous spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a young Canadian backpacker who was found dead on an Australian beach this week are remembering her for “her infectious laugh and her kind spirit” – and her sense of adventure. <\/p>\n

Her father said in a Facebook post that he had supported his daughter taking the trip to Australia, knowing he had little choice after she told him: “I’m 18, and you can’t stop me!” <\/p>\n

The body of Piper James, 19, was found surrounded by a pack of dingoes on the beach on K’Gari, an island off Australia’s eastern coast on Monday. <\/p>\n

Authorities are trying to determine whether James died from drowning after going for an early morning swim, from being attacked by the animals, or some other cause. <\/p>\n

Her mother told Global News that her daughter had always dreamed of travelling<\/a> and had saved money for this trip after her high school graduation. <\/p>\n

Both parents worried about her travelling at her age, but James was committed. <\/p>\n

“We warned her about everything,” said Angela James. “We had a rule that she wasn’t supposed to go swimming alone. She wasn’t supposed to go out alone ever. And she broke those rules and it cost her her life.” <\/p>\n

Establishing the cause of death may take some time, a spokesperson for the Coroners Court of Queensland said in a statement to media, adding that the family is being kept up to date on the investigation.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted the coroner for comment. <\/p>\n

Piper James had been working at a backpacker’s hostel for the past six weeks and had told friends she was going for an early morning swim on Monday. <\/p>\n

Her body was found around 0630 local time by two men who were driving along the beach and spotted a pack of about 10 dingoes around an object. When they approached they realised it was a body. <\/p>\n

She was found near the Maheno shipwreck, which washed ashore in 1935 – its skeletal remains have become a popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n

The area is also known for its population of dingoes, a wild species of dog protected in Queensland national parks as a native species.<\/p>\n

About 200 dingoes live on World Heritage-listed K’Gari, according to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a young Canadian backpacker who was found dead on an Australian beach this week are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-248025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}