A woman found dead after spending days in a sweltering car had approached police believing she was being stalked, her father said.

The body of 48-year-old Kirsten Moriarty was discovered in the back of a Toyota Yaris outside of the Lake Illawarra Police Station, north of Wollongong, about 4.30pm on Friday.

CCTV footage captured Moriarty entering the police station to speak with officers before returning to her vehicle three days prior.

Now her father, Ron Wyber, has revealed he believes she approached police to make a stalking report.

“She believed she was being stalked, and she went to the police station for help,” Wyber told the ABC.

“We don’t know what happened after that.”

Officers uncovered the body after noticing the car had been parked there for some time and broke a window to get a better look inside.

Paramedics determined she was in an advanced state of decomposition due to the high heat.

Wyber also quashed initial claims from police that the author, journalist and former councillor for the Somerset Regional Council had been homeless and living in the car at the time.

He said she had moved to her family’s property in nearby Kiama in early 2024 and still had her belongings inside the vehicle because of ongoing injuries sustained from a skydiving accident.

‘Dark days’ of former councillor’s past

During the jump with the Brisbane Skydiving Centre at Willowbank in July 2010, the experienced skydiver claimed she drifted off target and struck two high-voltage power lines.

The 11,000-volt shock caused extensive burns to her ankles, thighs, neck and chest, and she remained trapped for nearly two hours before emergency crews could free her.

She wrote a book, titled From Dark Days To Blue Skies, recounting how she “came back from the dead after a devastating skydiving accident”.

Moriarty was overwhelmed by the support she received from Somerset locals during her 16 subsequent surgeries and was spurred on to represent the council during elections in 2012.

“Someone was watching out for me that day,” she said.

“I survived for a reason and I believe that reason was to serve and strengthen this amazing community we have here in the Somerset.”

With a new lease on life and a burgeoning political career, Moriarty pursued her next step and ran for council mayor in 2016.

Mayoral race before silence

Moriarty’s website, archived by the Wayback Machine, featured her mayoral campaign heading into the April election.

“The Somerset region needs a strong voice and a strong vision to move it forward,” the website read.

“We are a region with so much possibility that has yet to be realised,”

But when the election was held, Moriarty had lost to the incumbent mayor Graeme Lehmann by a margin of 37-63 per cent.

Her website was suddenly wiped of her political career soon after — going completely offline sometime after March, 2020 — and Moriarty’s presence online suddenly fell silent.

While police know about her final day, not much is known about the almost-decade separating that day and her mayoral loss.

Investigations into her death remain ongoing and will become part of a report for the coroner.

NSW Police could not comment on Wyber’s remarks due to the investigation.

Source: https://7news.com.au/news/kirsten-moriarty-ex-councillor-found-dead-in-car-outside-nsw-police-station-believed-she-was-being-stalked-c-20963782