The family of a seven-year-old girl have spoken of their heartbreak over the child's untimely death after she was buried alive on a Florida beach.
Sloan Mattingly's mother said the family is “forever changed” after the tragedy that occurred on the beach at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on Tuesday.
“Yesterday, while we were here on vacation, a terrible accident occurred that took away our best 7.5 years,” Therese Mattingly wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the family that has raised $142,000.
“Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss… Don’t do this to us.” We have experienced the purest of humanity and will be forever changed by it.
“We love you beyond imagination.” Our sweet Sloan. What we would give.'
Sloan died after being buried in a sand hole and tried to save herself in her final moments by holding on to her brother Maddox.
The family of a seven-year-old girl have spoken of their heartbreak over the child's untimely death after she was buried alive on a Florida beach
The Mattingly family is pictured with nine-year-old Maddox (left), parents Therese and Jason, and seven-year-old Sloan
Dad Jason posted a photo the next day of the beach where the tragedy occurred, with a ray of sunshine hitting the shore
Bouquets of flowers were left near the scene of the accident where the little girl lost her life
People left a tribute to the seven-year-old on the beach in Fort Lauderdale
The Mattingly family expressed their deep sorrow and shared the devastating incident on a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $140,000
It took 20 minutes to pull her out after the sand around her gave way.
Sloan's grieving uncle, Chris Sloan, said the young girl repeatedly tried to hold onto nine-year-old Maddox's leg to get out of the sand, but eventually the boy no longer felt her holding on to him.
“We found that out after the sand gave way. “She kept trying to grab Maddox’s leg to get up from the sand and eventually he couldn’t feel her moving,” Chris told KFOR.
He described Sloan as a girl with “a lot of energy and just completely innocent.”
“She was always happy,” Chris said. “She was really fun to be with. “She had a lot of energy and was just completely innocent, and that's what hurts the most in all of this.”
Chris went on to say that the family rarely goes on vacation and texts updates in the family group chat.
“They don’t really vacation much, but they went to Ft. “Lauderdale to the beach,” Chris said. “They have been posting pictures on social media for the last few days.”
Maddox was rescued and taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Chris Sloan, Sloan Mattingly's grieving uncle, said the young girl kept trying to hold onto Maddox's leg to get out of the sand, but eventually the boy no longer felt her moving
Uncle Chris Sloan described Sloan as a girl with “a lot of energy and just completely innocent.”
“She kept trying to grab Maddox's leg to get up from the sand, and eventually he couldn't feel her moving anymore,” the uncle said
“I received a text message, just like everyone else in the group chat, asking me to call a number for a conference call.”
“When we were all on the phone, my brother David said, ‘Okay. “What I have to tell you will be the worst news of your entire life.”
'And it was. He said that she died, that Sloanie died.
“The sand had taken its toll on him [Maddox] He screamed for help and many people came and helped him. There's actually a video of it.
“She was unresponsive at the scene, as far as we know,” Chris said.
Sloan's older brother, Maddox, was the first to be rescued from the hole and was hospitalized in stable condition after also being injured in the collapse
Sloan with her father Jason, who said she was “full of life”
In a photo posted on Facebook, the family is seen celebrating another holiday a few years ago
A crowd gathered to help dig out the children until authorities arrived
Frantic passers-by fell to their knees and dug with their hands in a desperate attempt to reach the girl
The sand hole where seven-year-old Sloan died is taped off
Harrowing audio recordings of the 911 call released earlier this week revealed the frantic moments as beachgoers tried to save Sloan after she was fatally buried.
A panicked witness can be heard telling a dispatcher how the mother of Sloan Mattingly, 7, frantically screamed, “My daughter is in there.”
“Everyone's screaming,” the caller continued, as people in the background shouted, “They don't see her head, they don't see her.”
After about 20 minutes, the young girl was finally pulled from the sand on the beach at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Florida, but tragically succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
A witness to the tragedy said “everyone is screaming” after the sand hole where Sloan was playing collapsed, before dozens of bystanders rushed to help her dig it out
Witnesses said the horror unfolded after Sloan and her older brother Maddox were playing in the hole when the ground gave way.
A separate audio recording of the 911 call that alerted officers to the beach noted that about 20 passersby rushed to join the effort to dig the girl out of the sand.
The person who initially called 911 initially told the dispatcher that “a bunch of people were trying to dig.”
She said she realized something was wrong when she heard “the father screaming for help” who “said his child was trapped in a hole in the sand.”
“The mother screams, 'My daughter is in there,'” she continued. “Everyone screams.”
Panicked screams and screams can be heard in the background of the audio recording, and the woman who called 911's voice broke as she warned the dispatcher, “They haven't gotten the child out yet.”
The family was visiting from Fort Wayne, Indiana when tragedy struck
Maddox was seen walking outside the hospital on Wednesday. He is pictured with his little sister Sloan
Parents Jason and Therese are pictured above
She said she couldn't describe the exact situation because “everyone was surrounding the collapsed hole,” but noted that she couldn't see the young girl's head above the sand.
“Oh, that mother… oh, that's terrible,” they said at the end of the call – seconds before a mournful wail could be heard in the background.
The siblings, their father and their mother Therese, 36, were visiting from Fort Wayne, Indiana, when the tragedy occurred.
Frantic cell phone footage showed crowds of desperate beachgoers falling to their knees and using their hands to dig children out of the sand.
Some tried to hold back the walls to prevent more sand from falling on the children.
Authorities said Sloan had no pulse when she emerged from the sand and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Although deaths from sand holes are very rare, they are not uncommon and studies and warnings have been published about them.
Dad Jason had been keeping the family updated on how their holiday was going on social media
According to Dr. Stephen Leatherman of Florida International University's Department of Earth and Environment, deep sand holes can be a death trap.
The expert explained that once a person's body is below the surface of the sand, the sand begins to dry out immediately.
“When people dig holes deeper than two feet and get into them, the sand immediately begins to dry out, at least where their body is below the surface of the sand.
“And dry sand can only support a 33-degree angle, and people dig these holes almost vertically.”
At this point the sides of the hole usually begin to collapse very quickly and sand begins to fall into the hole at an alarming rate.
Leatherman also pointed out that there is also a risk that someone could step on the edge of a hole before the sand dries out and a massive collapse occurs.
“The deeper the hole, the greater the risk,” the expert told NBC.