Overview
- Tasmania Police rejoined ground efforts after an independent team found Celine Cremer's mobile phone on Dec. 13 about 300 metres off the Philosopher Falls track near Waratah.
- Searchers subsequently located a water bottle and a cut garbage bag that may have been used as a poncho, with all items now in police custody for forensic examination, including DNA testing.
- Authorities say the phone's location and data support a working theory that Cremer left the marked trail using a navigation app, dropped the phone, and became disoriented in dense bushland.
- The official search has been suspended pending test results, with volunteers indicating some independent efforts may continue in difficult terrain that requires slow, on-foot searches.
- Investigators and search organizers expect DNA results on the bottle could take weeks and analysis of the phone data could take months, guiding where to focus any resumed operations.