A witness to the horrific death of a seven-year-old girl trapped in a gaping sand hole said he wished he had intervened sooner to save the girl.
Harry Defina said he is still trying to make sense of the tragedy after Sloan Mattingly and his brother, Maddox, became trapped in the sand on a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach on Tuesday.
Sloan died after being buried inside the sand hole while her brother was rescued. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
‘I see the children in the hole. I was able to see the child a little bit, but the only thing I can see… I’m not going to be able to finish this… the only thing I could see was the top of the girl’s head,’ Defina said. NBC 6.
“I saw that the father was out of his mind.”
‘They didn’t dig that hole. It was huge and ended up measuring about 18 feet by 6 feet,’ he recalled.
Seven-year-old Sloan Mattingly died after being buried inside a sand hole Tuesday along a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach.
The witness, Harry Defina, said he saw the brother and sister trapped in the sand hole. He choked and said all he “could see was the top of the girl’s head.”
The frantic bathers knelt and dug with their hands in a desperate attempt to reach the girl.
Sloan was pulled out 20 minutes after the sand sank around her and her brother as dramatic cellphone video captured the moment frantic beachgoers tried to pull her out.
The girl’s grieving uncle, Chris Sloan, said the girl kept trying to hold onto Maddox’s leg to get out of the sand, but eventually the boy couldn’t feel her holding him anymore.
‘She was always happy. It was very fun to be with her. She had a lot of energy and was totally innocent, and that’s what hurts the most in all of this.
‘They were having a good time. They were staying in an Airbnb. Everyone was very excited to see them out there.
‘They don’t really go on vacation much, but they went to Ft. Lauderdale to the beach.
‘They had been posting photos the last few days on social media.
‘I received a text, as did everyone in the group chat, to call a number for a conference call.
‘Once we all got on the phone, my brother David said, “Okay. What I have to tell you is going to be the worst news of your entire life.”
‘And that was. He said she had passed away, that Sloanie had passed away,” Chris said. KFOR.
‘The sand had reached his [Maddox] chest, and he was screaming for help, and a lot of people came to help. In fact, there is a video of that.
“What we know is that she did not respond at the scene,” he added.
Sloan’s older brother Maddox, who was trapped in the hole with her, was able to be rescued. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition after also being injured in the collapse.
The scene of the tragic event is blocked by police, tape and orange cones around the large hole.
Sloan Mattingly’s grieving uncle, Chris Sloan, said the young woman kept trying to hold on to Maddox’s leg to get out of the sand, but eventually the boy could no longer feel her movement.
In the video, a panicked witness is heard telling the operator how Sloan’s mother, Mother Therese, desperately screamed, “My daughter is in there.”
“Everyone is screaming,” the caller continued, as people shouted in the background: “They don’t see his head, they don’t see his head.”
Separate audio from the 911 operator who alerted officers to the beach noted that about 20 bystanders had rushed to join the efforts to remove the girl from the sand.
The person who initially called 911 began by telling the dispatcher that there was “a group of people trying to dig.”
He said he realized something was wrong when he heard “the father screaming for help,” who “said his son was trapped in a hole in the sand.”
Panic screams and screams can be heard in the background of the audio, and the voice of the woman who called 911 cracked as she warned the dispatcher, “They haven’t gotten the child out yet.”
Sloan was eventually pulled from the arena, but tragically succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
According to authorities, she had no pulse when she left the arena and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
His mother recently said the family has been “forever” changed after the tragedy and that a GoFundMe page set up for the family has raised more than $146,000.
“A freak accident happened yesterday while we were here on vacation and took away our best 7.5 years,” Therese said on the page.
‘Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss…don’t do that to us. We experience the purest human being and it changes us forever.
The family is seen on another vacation a few years ago in a photo posted on Facebook. Sloan’s mother (right) said her family has been “forever” changed after the tragedy.
A moment of silence will be held in the girl’s honor at the Friday Night Music concert and at the City Commission meeting on Tuesday. Flowers have already been placed on the beach in memory of her
‘We love you beyond any stretch of the imagination. Our sweet Sloan. What we would give.’
A moment of silence will be held in the girl’s honor at the Friday Night Music concert and at the City Commission meeting on Tuesday. Flowers have already been placed on the beach in her memory.
Officials said that in addition to a tribute to Sloan, the meeting will discuss the incident, including lifeguard and ordinance issues.
‘The sad news that seven-year-old Sloan Mattingly passed away earlier this week has left our entire community heartbroken. “Our deepest condolences go out to the Mattingly family during this difficult time,” the city said in a statement.
Although deaths from sand holes are very rare, they are not unheard of and studies and warnings have been published about them.
According to Dr. Stephen Leatherman of the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, deep sand holes can be a death trap.
The expert explained that once a person’s body is below the level of the sand, the sand begins to dry immediately.
‘When people dig holes more than two feet deep and get into them, at least where their body is below the level of the sand, the sand begins to dry immediately.