A 36-year-old man has been charged with the murder of outback nurse Gayle Woodford in South Australia’s Far North.

Mrs Woodford’s body was found in a shallow grave about 1.5 kilometres east of her home town of Fregon on Saturday after a three-day search.

The man, from Mimili, had earlier been charged with the theft of the ambulance Mrs Woodford used for work.

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He was one of three people found inside the vehicle when police intercepted it 400 kilometres away in Coober Pedy the morning after Mrs Woodford disappeared.

The 56-year-old nurse, originally from Stansbury on the Yorke Peninsula, was last seen alive when she and her husband went to bed on Wednesday night at their home in the remote APY Lands community, 1,200 kilometres north-west of Adelaide.

She had worked for the Nganampa Health Council for more than five years, which meant often working alone and receiving late-night call-outs.

Forensic investigators were expected in the remote community on Sunday to examine the gravesite, which was under police guard overnight.

Police used GPS data collected from the ambulance to trace the vehicle’s movements and eventually located Mrs Woodford’s body.

‘Popular’ nurse remembered

GPS data showed the vehicle had left Fregon after midnight and was driven to Mimili, and then on to Indulkana and Marla, in the early hours of Thursday.

Special Tasks and Rescue (STAR) Group officers were supported by the police air wing, other police officers and volunteers from the CFS, SES as well as nurses, teachers and community members during the search across the APY Lands.

The ambulance Gayle Woodford used for work was stopped by police in Coober Pedy. Photo: SA Police

Residents of Stansbury, where Mrs Woodford and her husband Keith lived for decades and where their two children still live, expressed their shock and grief at her death.

“Gayle was a beautiful, generous woman who everyone loved. She’s the kind of woman who would go and work as a nurse in the APY Lands,” one resident said.

It is believed her two children have travelled up to the Far North of the state to be with their father.

Tributes were also paid to Mrs Woodford and her family at an Easter service at the local community church on Sunday.

Mrs Woodford’s colleagues have remembered her as a “popular” nurse who was highly competent in her job.

Her employer, Nganampa Health Council on the APY Lands, described her death as a “devastating and horrendous event”.

Medical director Paul Torzillo said Mrs Woodford was held in incredibly high regard and the community was feeling the loss.

“Gayle was a loved, incredibly popular and extremely competent nurse with our organisation for a long period of time,” he said.

“The organisation’s major focus at the moment is trying to support her husband and family and her work colleagues and friends in the organisation as well as people in the community who are also devastated by this terrible event.”

Concerns about working alone raised

A remote healthcare association said Mrs Woodford’s death highlighted the vulnerability of those who work alone in isolated areas.

CRANAplus said while it was too early to know the exact circumstances of the death, it was a “wake-up call” for the industry.

Executive officer Christopher Cliffe said the vulnerability of remote healthcare nurses should be recognised.

“We have been lobbying for a very long time to not have single clinician posts where nurses or health workers or doctors actually have to respond to these sorts of emergencies in isolation so that there’s a couple of people available,” he said.

“If there are things that need to be changed and improved, then it’s essential that we as an Australian health community get on top of that and make sure this could never ever happen again.”

South Australian Health Minister Jack Snelling said in a statement he extended his heartfelt sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Gayle Woodford at this tragic time.

An online petition calling for two people to attend afterhours call outs in government, Indigenous health corporations and not-for-profit organisation health centres to be introduced has been set up in response to Mrs Woodford’s death.

The petition on change.org by Joanne Norton had received more than 10,500 signatures by Sunday afternoon. It also calls for single nurse posts to be abolished.

-ABC