Ricky Megee, a 35-year-old man, survived 71 days stranded in the Australian Outback by eating leeches, frogs, and other small animals. He was discovered in 2006 by cattle farmhands who described him as a 'walking skeleton'. Megee had lost over half his body weight during the ordeal.
Megee was travelling from Brisbane, Queensland, to Port Hedland, Western Australia, to start a new job. He had a difficult past, including his father's suicide and multiple jail sentences for street fighting and drug use. He hoped the move would be a fresh start.
During the journey, Megee claims he picked up a hitchhiker who drugged him. He later changed his story, saying three men spiked his drink or stabbed him with a drug-filled syringe. He woke up in a makeshift grave, covered in black tarp, with dingoes clawing at him.
Stranded in the desert, Megee walked for 10 days in temperatures exceeding 40°C. He survived by eating snakes, ants, lizards, frogs, grasshoppers, and leeches. He drank his own urine when water was scarce and built shelters from branches.
The case remains one of Australia's most controversial unsolved mysteries, with Megee's accounts varying over time.
