Extraordinary twist in case of woman who died after two weeks lost in the Outback while her two friends miraculously survived as it's revealed she was smuggling $70,000 of METH
- Police investigation into death of woman in NT outback in December has ended
- Claire Hockridge, 46, died after spending two weeks lost south of Alice Springs
- Police investigating death say she was part of drug-smuggling racket at the time
- Backpack containing $70,000 worth of meth was found next to her body
A woman who died after spending two weeks lost in the outback was part of an elaborate drug-smuggling racket at the time, an investigation has found.
Mother-of-two and grandmother Claire Hockridge, 46, went missing in a remote part of the Northern Territory in November after telling friends she was going on a camping trip with two companions.
The group's Mitsubishi Triton four-wheel drive became bogged down in the dry bed of the Finke River south of Alice Springs.
While her travelling companions were found alive, a police investigation for the coroner was launched after Ms Hockridge's body was found on December 4, 38 kilometres south-southeast of Stuarts Well.
It's since been revealed police found a backpack containing $70,000 worth of meth and a small amount of heroin next to her body, the Northern Territory News reported.
The publication also said Hockridge had an extensive history of heroin and methamphetamine use.
The investigation revealed that Ms Hockridge had driven from Adelaide to Alice Springs after buying $100,000 worth of methamphetamine prior to her ill-fated outback trip.
A backpack containing $70,000 worth of meth and a small amount of heroin was found next to the body of Claire Hockridge (pictured), a police investigation has revealed
On her way back into Alice Springs, she turned off the Stuart Highway near Henley Station to hide the stash of drugs in sealed pipes and marked their location in the dirt.
A week later on November 19, Ms Hockridge returned to the outback in her 4WD with two companions to retrieve the drugs, telling friends she was heading on a camping trip.
But the trio became lost and got bogged in the dry bed of the Finke River the next day and set up camp in the hope they would be found.
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While stranded in the outback in 40C temperatures, the trio soon ran out of food and water supplies and were forced to drink from a dirty pond, which made them violently ill.
On November 26, police went Ms Hockridge's Alice Springs home after concerned friends reported her missing and found the place ransacked and the security camera recording box unplugged.
Ms Hockridge smoked up to 110 hits of meth during her two weeks in the outback, according to investigators.
They concluded from footprints found nearby that Ms Hockridge was 'confused and disoriented' in her final moments before she died of an 'environmental heat injury'.
Ms Hockridge had said she was going on a camping trip with friends but became lost when their 4WD was bogged south of Alice Springs (file photo)
Her family was told by the NT Coroner's office in March that a public inquest would not be held, citing no new information about her death would be uncovered.
Some of the investigation's findings cannot be published for legal reasons.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Northern Territory Police and NT Coroner's Office, which were both unable to comment on the investigation's findings.
Ms Hockridge's grieving family also declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding her death but said she was dearly missed by everyone.
'The family have no comment to give in regards to my mother's extra curricular activities, as we were not her keepers,' her daughter Teagan Eden-Street told Daily Mail Australia.
'At the end of the day, regardless of everything she was still our daughter, sister, aunty, mother and grandmother and she is extremely missed and grieved for by everyone who personally knew her.'
