THE last of three hikers to go missing in the Australian outback has been found dead after her partner and friend were miraculously found alive.

Claire Hockridge's body was discovered today after she was missing for 15 days in the Northern Territory.

The tragedy comes just days after Claire's partner Tamra McBeath-Riley, 52, was found alive after surviving on vodka and biscuits in 40C heat.

Their friend Phu Tran, 40, was discovered today on a remote farm in the Northern Territory – two days after Tamra McBeath-Riley, 52, was found.

Claire's triplet sister, Sarah, said the family are grieving and exhausted from "the emotional rollercoaster" they had been on.

She said: "Even though Claire has died in terrible circumstances, we are glad that Tamra and Phu have been found alive and well, and we are extremely grateful to everyone who was involved in that," she said.

"My parents, brothers, Melinda and I extend our gratitude to the Northern Territory Police for their skilful investigation that allowed the search area to be focused correctly.

15 DAYS MISSING

"They haven't had a day off since this whole thing started."

Claire was part of a group of three who became stranded on November 19 when their car got stuck on the River Hugh riverbed.

They split up three days later in order to find help.

Phu was found by a farmer who was performing checks on his property – locally known as a station – which is about 100miles south of Alice Springs, police said.

He is currently recovering in hospital and being treated for heat exposure.

Supt Pauiline Vicary said: "If you believe in miracles, I'm saying it's a miracle."

Phu was found just under eight miles away from the car and two days after he separated from missing hiker Claire Hockridge.

Supt Vicary told NT News: "He decided to follow the fence line, and he left her there.

"He continued to walk along the fence line for two days and approached the pastoralist [farmer] today and the first thing he did was get some water."

It comes two days after 52-year-old Tamra McBeath-Riley was found.

The group spent three days by the car with McBeath-Riley's Staffordshire Bull Terrier Raya before deciding to part ways to find help.

Helicopters were dispatched and found McBeath-Riley about a mile from the car after a local cattle rancher spotted tyre tracks and phoned the police.

If you believe in miracles, I'm saying it's a miracle.

Tamra told reporters outside of the hospital on Monday: "We tried many times to try to get out, but just couldn't get out, the river was just too large.

"During the day it's just really hot so we dug ourselves under the car. At night [we] could sleep in the car."

They used up all of their supplies of water as well as some iced vodka drinks, biscuits and beef noodles they had in the car.

And after walking for about a mile, they came across a watering hole, and were able to make some groundwater drinkable by boiling it before sieving it through a shirt.

Tamra opted to remain by the hole with her dog, fearing it would not survive a longer walk in the heat.

It is unknown whether the dog survived.

Claire and Phu took a GPS device and a compass and continued on a 12-mile trek towards a nearby road.

Tran also swapped a pair of flip-flops for Tamra's boots to better protect his feet.

They had intended to travel only at night to avoid the searing daytime heat, though had with them only six litres of water and no food.

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