Aged lovers in outback escapade almost together in death

These Aussie lovers lived together for 15 years.

After that came illness and separation, a kidnap, an insane road trip, a criminal case.

Then they died, in opposite corners of the vast Australian continent, less than two days apart.

Carol Lisle, 84, died in her sleep at a nursing home near Perth.

Ralph Gibbs, 80, died in a car crash on a lonely coastal highway in Queensland.

The couple had lived in Cairns, in Australia’s north-east.

Last year, Ms Lisle's family moved her to the nursing home in Mandurah, in the south-west.

She suffered from Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and when Mr Gibbs fell ill too and had to be hospitalised, the family decided she could not manage on her own.

Then Mr Gibbs recovered and decided to get her back home, across the continent, by road.

He loaded his ute - a cross between a car and a pickup truck - with jerry cans of fuel, and arrived at her nursing home on Jan 2.

They had lunch together, and when no one was looking, he managed to sneak the wheelchair-bound Ms Lisle out to the vehicle, and set off with her.

He was not equipped for a 5,000km trip with an invalid, through the Australian desert in searing summer temperatures.

They did not even have enough food and water.

He had only a paper map with a route marked out, and got lost and disoriented.

Police launched a massive hunt for them, and they were found two days later, close to death, near the town of Warakurna, 1,700km north-east of Perth.

Ms Lisle had to be airlifted to hospital for urgent treatment.

Mr Gibbs was alone again, and facing the law.

He was charged with wrongfully taking her away and endangering her, and convicted.

But the judge agreed that he had acted out of love, and on Feb 18, gave him a suspended seven-month jail sentence.

Outside the court, he told reporters that he still wanted her back.

“I fear I might never see my little girl again,” he was quoted as saying.

Ms Lisle died at the nursing home three days later, on the night of Feb 21.

In the early hours of Feb 23, Mr Gibbs, who had been informed of her death, crashed his car head on into another on the Bruce Highway south of Cairns.

The other driver, a 60-year-old man, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Mr Gibbs died on the spot.