Decomposing body found 30ft up TREE in Australia identified as young missing U.S. nanny, 22, working abroad

Decomposing body found 30ft up TREE in Australia identified as young missing U.S. nanny, 22, working abroad

The decomposing body of a young woman found 30ft up an oak tree in Australia has been identified as a missing U.S. tourist who was working abroad as a live-in nanny and allegedly committed suicide

The remains of Melissa Joy Dietzel, 22, of Redlands, California, were found by a tree surgeon on January 12 in the Randwick area of Sydney, after reports of a foul smell coming from the tree.

Ms Dietzel - who was identified through missing person's records, dental details and her U.S. clothing - had not been living in the tree before her death, despite reports to the contrary, police said.

The young girl travelled from the U.S. to Australia in November on a visa after finishing her studies in elementary education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, an anonymous friend said.

'She was big about the outdoors so she was stoked about being in Australia,’ the friend told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘She was the one that cheered everyone up and talked to everyone.’

'She always made me smile when I was having a horrid day,’ another friend wrote on her Facebook page. ‘She also gave fabulous hugs. Sometimes it's the little things that matter the most.’

She may have been dead in the tree for two weeks. Residents began complaining about a foul smell in the area on January 4, but thought it was caused by a cat or possum that had died in the area.

The tree and the fence underneath it have since been removed after they became contaminated by Ms Dietzel's decaying body. Her death is not being treated as suspicious but instead as a suicide.

The young woman was found with long brown hair and a black hair clip holding a plastic flower. She was wearing an Outlaw green jumper, a No Boundaries top and Jasmine USA leggings.

'She was big about the outdoors so she was stoked about being in Australia. She was the one that cheered everyone up'

Friend of Melissa Joy Dietzel

Detectives said on finding the body that it had decomposed so much that the fingerprints might not even be visible. Residents were perplexed when the body was brought down from the tree.

Danyane Bowing, 35, who lived next door to the tree, said she thought the woman may have walked through her garden around New Year's Eve and climbed her fence into the tree.

‘I'm no expert on decomposing bodies in summer time,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘But when I went out around the start of the New Year I remember thinking something smelled dead.'

Ms Dietzel, who was working as a nanny in Sydney but let go by her host family, came from a very large family with around eight siblings. She had been missing for more than a month when found