A grandmother has died after being washed away in a flood while walking her dog in Australia.
Mari Cao, 57, was walking her dog Roxy in the early hours of Monday morning in the southeastern state of Victoria.
Witnesses told police that they had seen a person roll up their trousers on the bank of Traralgon Creek, near Whittakers Road, before being swept away with the dog at about 5.30am local time.
Police had released CCTV footage in an attempt to identify the person that the witnesses had reported missing.
The footage shows a woman walking her dog down a deserted street before dawn.
On Tuesday, a body was found and police identified the victim as Ms Cao. Roxy has yet to be found.
Mari Cao was filmed by CCTV walking her dog before she was swept away by a flood
(Victoria Police)
One of Ms Cao’s sons, Cameron, posted a tribute on Facebook, in which he said he was “so sorry” that he wasn’t there to help her.
He wrote, as reported by the Herald Sun newspaper: “I love you so much and I am begging for whatever is there to let you in so you can enjoy heaven and peace.”
Cameron said that his mother’s body was “found just upstream from where she fell”.
At the time of the incident, authorities had issued flood warnings for the region around Traralgon Creek.
Flowers and tributes have been left by the creek.
