Frantic 911 call uncovers panic at beach after 7-year-old girl is buried alive
This is the heart-wrenching moment a woman desperately made a frantic 911 call after a 7-year-old girl was buried alive at a beach in Florida.
A panic-stricken call to emergency services was made from the beach after Sloan Mattingly, who was playing on a family holiday with her 9-year-old brother, saw a 5-foot-deep sand hole collapse on her.
In the harrowing call, the eyewitness says she sees a child being buried alive on the beach. “I’m on the beach in front of High Noon, and there’s a child that they’re trying to get out,” according to the woman who tells the 911 operator in audio released by NBC 6 South Florida on Wednesday.
Sloan's brother Maddox was submerged up to his chest in the sand and the little girl was fully buried, according to the Boward County Sheriff's Office.
READ MORE: Joe Biden's dog booted from White House after 'biting Secret Service 24 times'
Family to sue Airbnb after toddler dies from fentanyl overdose during nap
Sloan Mattingly was tragically killed (Local 10)
Desperate attemps were made to rescue the siblings (CBS)The call says that a “bunch of people [were] trying to dig” before the beacher-goer tells the operator that she heard the girl’s dad “yelling for help” and that his daughter was “caught in a hole in the sand.”
“The mom’s yelling, ‘my daughter is in there,’” she said. “Everybody’s screaming,” the woman says as shouting from others can be heard as they desperately try to rescue the girl throughout the frantic call.
During the call, the woman is told emergency responders have been dispatched to the beach before the beachgoer reveals those helping still “have not gotten the child out” and that they’re still “digging.”
The call handler asks the witness what part of the child’s body is trapped and is told the “whole body” of the girl is still under the sand.
Emergency services were dispatched to the beach (CBS)She’s asked by the operator if “the child’s head is above the sand” but responds that “they do not see her head” as others desperately continue to get the child dug out. “They need help,” the woman says. “They really do.”
As the operator continues to try and ask the woman questions about what’s happening on the scene, she becomes upset at the mum's distress. “Oh, this mother… oh, this is awful,” she says. The dispatcher asks if the “officer is with the child,” only to be met by a horrific scream in the background, with the woman simply replying, “Yes,” as the call ends.
An army of beach goers tried to help dig the pair out (CBS)Sloan, who was submerged in the sand for nearly 20 minutes, was pronounced dead at Broward Health Medical Centre in Fort Lauderdale. Maddox was pulled out by his dad, Jason Mattingly, and survived the traumatic ordeal.
According to authorities, support boards were used to keep sand from falling back into the hole as they dug. “It was an unfathomable accident,” Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Sandra King said following the girl’s death. The tragic incident remains under investigation, according to police.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
