A 17-year-old Australian girl is currently in intensive care in hospital after being left critically injured in a hit-and-run. Grim enough, but before she was hit by the car, April-Lee Gillen, who lives in New South Wales, posted a pretty eerie message to Facebook: ‘Phones on 1 percent walking from warrawong to berks [Berkeley, where she lives with her family] and some Asian guy just stopped me telling me to come home with him cause it’s safe and I need help wtf sos.’
Minutes later, April-Lee was found on a residential street in an area known as Lake Heights. Police say that people living nearby heard ‘a loud noise’ before she was found. April’s sister Kimberly wrote on Facebook: ‘[April is] in ICU on life support bleeding from her brain and not breathing on her own. She may of been abused or a hit and run between 12.30 and 1.30 (sic).'
A day later, Kimberly returned to Facebook to thank people for their support, according to the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘'I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers regarding April-Lee. I have been overwhelmed with inbox's and messages of support. I have been extremely busy and haven't had time to reply, but I do appreciate it. Thank you from the entire Gillen family; we are staying positive.'
While April-Lee's family are keeping a bedside vigil, police say that the Facebook message ‘is certainly vital information our detectives are following up, but until we can speak to April herself, we need further information from the public.'
And whilst it's no doubt useful that April's message could potentially provide clues as to what happened to her before she was hit by the car and identify whoever was behind the wheel when she was struck, isn't it also a bit strange that, with that 1% of battery left, she chose to Facebook her friends instead of calling the police?
Maybe it's because she felt she would get to more people with a Facebook status? Maybe she didn't feel comfortable making a phone call at that moment? Maybe she just didn't trust that the police would do anything if she called them? Or perhaps she, like so many other people, respond to a situation by broadcasting it as opposed to acting on it? Essentially, has social media has become the go-to way for us to express ourselves – even in potentially dangerous situations?
Hopefully April-Lee will be able to reveal the full story.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.