Angela and Todd James are calling on the state government to increase warnings about the danger of dingoes during peak periods on K’gari. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

Heartbroken, Todd and Angela James slowly walked hand-in-hand into the waves lapping onto the beach under leaden skies.

Silent but for the sound of the rolling surf, the couple knelt and placed their hands where the body of their only child was found two weeks prior on K’gari (Fraser Island).

Angela and Todd James in the surf at a smoking ceremony for their daughter on K’gari. (ABC Wide Bay: James Taylor)

Choking with grief, Angela said in that moment she yearned for a connection with Piper, her beautiful 19-year-old daughter.

“I wanted her to know that we were there, and how much we loved her,” she said.

Todd said he was tormented by the feeling he couldn’t have done more to protect his daughter and “best friend”.

“That’s all I could pray for is that if she could hear me, know how much we loved you and we miss you,” he said.

“We’re sorry this happened to you, and I’m going to do my best to make sure it never happens to anyone again.”

Family and friends of Piper James joined a smoking ceremony held by the Butchulla people on K’gari’s Eastern Beach. (ABC News: James C Taylor)

Cause of death inconclusive

On a backpacking holiday from her native Canada, Piper was last seen alive early in the morning of Monday, January 19.

For the past week she had been living and working at a campsite, together with her childhood friend and fellow Canadian Taylor Stricker.

Taylor Stricker and Piper James worked hard to fund their dream of backpacking the coast of Australia. (Supplied: Marjorie Stricker)

The campsite was a short distance from the Eastern Beach on K’gari, a world heritage-listed island 250 kilometres north of Brisbane.

In her short time on the island, Piper had developed a routine of walking to the beach to watch the sunrise and call her parents at home in Campbell River, a small town on Vancouver Island.

“It was just the way she loved to start her day, it was so special to her,” Angela said.

K’gari is the largest sand island in the world. (ABC News: Nickoles Coleman )

That morning, Piper left the campsite at 5am, telling friends she was going to the beach.

About 90 minutes later, two men driving southwards along the beach saw a pack of dingoes surrounding an object that was obscured at first.

As they approached the dingoes dispersed, revealing Piper’s body.

Exactly what transpired between 5am and the time Piper was found remains a mystery.

The eastern beach of K’gari (Fraser Island). (ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)

A preliminary assessment from the Queensland coroner found Piper had sustained dingo bites before and after death, but drowning was the most likely cause of death.

The death certificate provided to Todd and Angela said the cause of death was inconclusive, and they have been told more testing was needed to provide the answers they are yearning for.

“We don’t have any closure … we’re told [testing] could take months and possibly not give us the answer we want,” Angela said.

Wanting to rule out foul play, Todd said he had called the coroner’s office to ask if a rape exam had been conducted.

Todd and Angela James are still waiting for answers about their daughter’s death. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

He said the official told him to submit his request via email, which he couldn’t bring himself to do.

“I had a concern as a father and I wanted to know that you were checking every angle for my little girl,” he said.

“We still don’t know, and I want to know that they didn’t just off the bat say it was dingoes or drowning and that’s it.”

The Coroners Court of Queensland has been contacted for comment.

‘I just dropped to my knees’

It was evening in Canada. Todd and Angela were at home, sitting on the couch watching TV.

They had spoken about how it was unusual not to hear from Piper but tried not to be concerned.

“It was kind of weird, but I thought, ‘oh she was just busy’, and I always try not to worry,” Angela said.

They answered a knock on the door to find Taylor’s mother, Marjorie Stricker, on their doorstep, distraught.

Angela James said she dropped to her knees when told the tragic news about her daughter. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

Seeing the story of Piper’s death had already broken in Australian media, Marjorie wanted to ensure Todd and Angela didn’t find out about the loss of their daughter on social media.

“I just dropped to my knees and just remember screaming,” Angela said.

“I was in complete denial, this just cannot be happening. But unfortunately, it was true.”

Smoking ceremony

After Piper’s body was released to the family around a week following her death, Todd and Angela flew to Brisbane together with Taylor and her parents and sister.

They landed on Tuesday morning and went straight to a funeral home near the airport, where they were reunited with their only child.

The following day, the group travelled to Hervey Bay to meet with the traditional owners of K’gari, the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC).

The BAC had offered a smoking ceremony to the family, and Todd and Angela had hoped it would help them to heal.

Todd James and Kate Doolan at smoking ceremony for Piper James on K’gari (Fraser Island). (ABC News: Lucy Loram)

However, the couple were disappointed to arrive at the site of the smoking ceremony, 200 metres from where Piper was found.

“I was confused, I’m like ‘why are we here?’,” Angela said.

“It just didn’t sit right in my heart that we weren’t there. I was angry, it made no sense.”

On Todd and Angela’s insistence, the ceremony was moved to where Piper was found.

Once it began, they said the elder who guided the ceremony, Kate Doolan, spoke some words that finally soothed their grief, words Angela said were “too personal” to repeat.

“It was like she could see into our souls,” she said.

A dingo walked past at the conclusion of the smoking ceremony. (ABC Wide Bay: James C Taylor)

Soon after the ceremony concluded, a lone dingo walked through the group.

Todd said he had conflicted feelings as he watched the dingo continue on its way northwards.

“I love animals, I love life,” he said.

“It just hurt to see, you look at them and think ‘how could that kill my baby?’

“I just had to turn away because that’s just nature. There was no ill will towards the dingoes, it’s just sadness that it got as far as it did.”

Call for reform

While they were on the island, Todd and Angela met with rangers from the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, who manage K’gari in collaboration with the BAC.

Todd said Taylor had told them she and Piper “had no idea” about a heightened dingo activity alert that had been in place since December.

The owners of the campsite, Dingo’s K’gari Adventures, had also told the couple they weren’t aware of the alert, Todd said.

Dingo’s K’gari Adventures has been contacted for comment.

Todd James revealed the K’gari trip helped form a deeper connection to Piper and granted him a sense of peace in his grief journey. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

“Everybody there said had they had known … that you can’t leave [the campsite alone], they never would left,” he said.

The alert warned of dingoes being unusually aggressive, ripping open tents to take food and approaching people.

It said visitors should be extra vigilant in certain areas on the island’s Eastern Beach, including a beach camping zone nearby Piper’s campsite that had been closed due to the risk of dingo attacks.

The couple called for the state government to review the current practices for educating visitors to the island to improve awareness of the alerts.

Todd and Angela James are calling for a review into visitor education warning of aggressive dingoes. (ABC Wide Bay: Olivia Nunes-Malek)

“One hundred per cent, I think this could have been prevented, and if we can stop this from happening to anybody else, that’s what we need to do,” Angela said.

Todd said the family was seeking legal representation in Australia to resist any efforts by the government to avoid any adverse publicity that may hamper tourism to K’gari.

“I just need to know that it’s not just being brushed under the rug, and that because you guys have the Olympics coming that we don’t want any [controversy],” he said.

“Let’s not hide it, let’s make it safer.”

A DETSI spokesperson said visitor safety was the department’s number one priority, and rangers were constantly reviewing public safety messaging to educate visitors about how to keep safe from dingoes.

Dingo risk mitigation measures including regular dingo patrols, signage, maintenance of fencing around townships and camping areas and issuing of heightened dingo alerts, the spokesperson said.

Visitors to K’gari are reminded to stay dingo safe when visiting the island. (ABC News)

Last week, a DETSI spokesperson said eight dingoes that were involved in Piper’s death had been euthanased, with a search still underway for one more.

Todd said Piper loved animals, and “wouldn’t have wanted the dingoes to die”.

He said isolating aggressive dingoes away from human contact would be a better solution.

“It’s just like in society, if you’ve got a group that’s not good, you need to just take that group out and move them away so we can keep our society safe,” he said.

K’gari campsite ‘magical’

Todd and Angela stayed in the campsite, next to the tent where Piper had slept.

“I wanted to sleep where she slept,” he said.

“I wanted to wake up in the morning, set the alarm, and we’d get up together and walk those steps down to the beach.”

One of Piper’s colleagues at the hostel created a necklace with a ‘I Love K’gari’ pendant. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

The couple said they were overwhelmed by the impact Piper had had on the other people in the camp in the short time she had stayed there.

“We keep hearing how awesome our kid was, how respectful, loyal and hard working,” Todd said.

The following morning, a group walked to the beach to watch the sunrise, retracing the steps Piper had taken in her final moments.

Todd and Angela said watching the sun rise on a glorious, clear morning helped them to feel closer to Piper.

Piper’s loved ones created a memorial at Champagne Pools. (Supplied: Angela James)

“It was magical,” Todd said.

“I can’t believe I’m saying these words; I never thought going over to K’gari, that’s how it’s going to feel.”

Angela said she struggled to leave the island later that day, but was comforted knowing K’gari and Vancouver Island are connected by the Pacific Ocean.

“I felt like I was leaving Piper there, which in my head doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

“I’m comforted by the fact that we share the same ocean, and she can be in both places at the same time.”

‘She made us proud’

Before they left Canada, the James family received a bag of Piper’s belongings sent back to them from Australia.

It contained a book in which Piper had written down notes about the tides on K’gari, and the rips common on the island’s beaches.

Todd said it was typical of his daughter’s determined and self-sufficient nature.

Todd James says he will always remember Piper’s infectious laugh and kind spirit. (Supplied: Todd James)

“She had told me that if you’re going to do something, just throw yourself right into it and learn as much as you can about it,” he said.

Todd and his daughter had bonded over her hobby competing in motocross, with Piper achieving second place in the local women’s competition.

“She wanted to be right up at the top, but she didn’t want to take all the credit,” he said.

“She pushed herself hard to get there, she made us proud.”

Piper had a sense of adventure and longed to travel, with Australia being a favoured destination since she was a child after seeing the local teen drama H2O.

Piper James worked as a firefighter in British Columbia to fund her travel to Australia. (Supplied: Todd James)

She worked for a year as a firefighter with the British Columbia Wildfire Service to save money for the trip.

When the time came for her to leave in October last year, Todd and Angela drove Piper to the airport to farewell her on the long-awaited adventure.

“I grabbed my arms around her, and I said, ‘You better come back, kid’,” Todd said.

“I was thinking you better come back because I don’t want you meeting some boy that’s going to keep you there, because I need you home.”

Todd bears several tattoos on his upper right arm dedicated to Piper, including a real-life portrait of his daughter wearing her motocross helmet. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

Angela said she cried when Piper and Taylor left, but they were tears of joy.

“We were so excited for the girls,” she said.

“We never in a million years dreamed this would happen.”

Celebration of life

This week, Todd and Angela will return home with Piper’s ashes.

A celebration of life is planned for the end of the month.

Todd said he wanted the celebration to double as the wedding for his daughter that she can no longer have.

Angela James said she added the semicolon after “resilient” as resilience is never-ending. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Ollie Wykeham)

“I dreamt of her getting married and having children, having a wedding, celebrating that,” he said.

“I hope at the end of the night that there’s a bunch of people dancing, I don’t want her looking down, sad and thinking, ‘why is everyone so sad?’

“I want it to be the true sense of a celebration of her life.”