An Australian CEO was reportedly attacked by criminals in the US and left for dead; his concerned family were unable to locate him for four days due to his hospitalization and induced coma.
On July 4, Colin Bettles—now the CEO of agricultural group Grain Producers Australia and a former media assistant to former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack—went out for pizza with colleagues while on a business trip in San Francisco.
He was attacked while walking back to his hotel after the pizza outing, resulting in a broken eye socket and severe brain trauma. He was left unconscious on the street after having his phone and wallet stolen. Thankfully, a bystander came to his aid.
A local hospital was unable to identify Mr. Bettles, a former journalist who subsequently entered politics, due to a lack of documentation.
His Australian girlfriend was unable to help sounding the alarm because she was working in a region with unreliable mobile service. Bettles was not reported missing until he missed his scheduled trip to New York. She then contacted Michael McCormack to notify the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. McCormack then alerted Penny Wong, the foreign minister, and the Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday.
Once the US authorities located Mr. Bettles, they followed him to his hospital bed, where he remained in critical care for five days.
An “all-around good guy” was how Mr. McCormack characterized his colleague and friend.
Mr. Bettles had documented his journey to the United States in many tweets on X on the day of the alleged assault.
He wrote about it being a wonderful day seeing the Pebble Beach golf course. He later uploaded a clip of San Francisco’s autonomous cabs.
Having started out as a journalist, Mr. Bettles worked for Fairfax as their national rural affairs correspondent from 2006 to 2018, based at Parliament House.
His specialty was the agriculture business, and he covered topics such as farm representation, crop production, deregulation of wheat exports, supply chain, and competitiveness.
In 2016, after it had been disbanded, he was president of the newly formed National Rural Press Club in Canberra.
Mr. Bettles is a lifelong cricket lover and hails from a family that farms dairy in Western Australia.
