Ed Foulston got a shock on Wednesday morning when he walked past the shed on his Bonegilla property when feeding the calves and heard a person call out “hello”.
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The voice turned out to belong to missing Wodonga man Cameron Kemshal-Bell, who had not been seen in five days.
Police held grave fears for the 31-year-old after his Holden Cruz was discovered abandoned in Thurgoona on Tuesday.
Mr Foulston said he believed Mr Kemshal-Bell walked about 12 kilometres to his property, through bushland which caused scratches on his arms and over a five-metre wide section of the Murray River.
“The Murray’s so low at the moment you can walk across,” he said.
The man had set up a bed using an old army sleeping bag and cushions from a physiotherapy table and was wearing a hoodie without any pants when Mr Foulston found him.
His wife Margaret later discovered the pants and underwear in a caravan on the property.
The ex-Wodonga councillor had quickly learned his surprise visitor was just unwell, not dangerous.
After buying him breakfast at Hungry Jack’s, he took him to Wodonga Hospital.
Mr Foulston said anyone would have helped someone in trouble like he did.
“I said what are you doing here, that’s when I got the ‘I don’t know, so I asked how long have you been here and he said ‘I don’t know’,” he said.
“I eventually got his name out of him, it took him a while to remember … he was in trouble, you do what you gotta do.”
I asked how long have you been here and he said ‘I don’t know’.
- Ed Foulston
Five days of walking had left Mr Kemshal-Bell tired and physically unwell.
“He was a bit worse for wear after a few days off tucker and off water,” Mr Foulston said.
Wodonga Detective Sergeant Graeme Simpfendorfer said Mr Kemshal-Bell’s medical condition had contributed to his disappearance.
But police could not say how or why the man became lost and ended up in Bonegilla.
A six-hour search on the NSW side of the border on Tuesday had been unsuccessful.
“He’s got no memory of the past four days,” Detective Simpfendorfer said.
“Thankfully he was found safe and well.”
Police will continue speaking with Mr Kemshal-Bell to piece together what happened.
