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A 13-year-old girl has been orphaned after her parents drowned while fishing in Western Australia.
Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, a Filipino couple who arrived in Perth nine years ago, died while crabbing.
Their bodies were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp around noon Thursday.
Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, a Filipino couple who arrived in Perth nine years ago, died while crabbing.
Their bodies were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp around noon Thursday
Relatives reportedly raised the alarm when the pair failed to show up for work on Thursday after they went crabbing together on Wednesday.
The couple had renewed their wedding vows two weeks ago and went fishing every week as a bonding exercise.
It is understood their car was found at the Herron Point campsites.
Family friend Marisol Armada has promised to raise the couple’s daughter.
‘I know how much they loved their daughter and we will do the same for her.’ Mrs Armada told Nine.
“They were truly a golden couple … We will cherish them forever in our hearts.”
The church attended by Mr and Mrs Ballo has shared their devastation at the loss of the couple and revealed their urgent efforts to find them.
The head pastor of the New Life Filipino-Australian Community Church said in a statement that he had known the couple since they first arrived in Perth.
“At 6 o’clock on Thursday they both failed to come to work,” he told The West Australian.
‘We saw brother Jon’s car in the car park around 9.15 Thursday … a police car (was a) minute ahead of us because they were tracking the ping from Leslie’s (phone).
“Even in the distance as the dinghy approached, I knew in the back of my mind that the worst had happened.”
The couple had renewed their wedding vows two weeks ago and went fishing every week as a bonding exercise
Sharing a heartfelt tribute to her sister and brother-in-law on Facebook, Ballo’s sister Lei Ortega-Moises said she knew they were both ‘in a good place with the Lord’.
‘It’s sad to think you left us like this,’ she wrote.
‘We love you very much. It hurts me/us so much that you are gone.
“We couldn’t believe it.”
She thanked her churchmates and friends for their fellowship, including the church’s leadership.
‘We love you so much, sister and brother. Rest in paradise,’ she wrote.
Police confirmed in a statement on Friday that the pair had drowned and said their deaths were not suspicious.