News summary
- Hugo and his friend Erwan Ferrieux traveled to Australia and disappeared three months later.
- Her belongings were found on a beach in New South Wales.
- Police believe the teenagers drowned after being swept away by the current.
Tania MacNabb and her son Hugo Palmer last hugged four years ago. Reproduction / Social Media
When Tania MacNabb hugged her 20yearold son Hugo Palmer goodbye four years ago, she had no idea it would be the last hug they would share. Hugo had been saving for months to embark on the adventure of a lifetime in Australia with four of his friends. But what was supposed to be a dream turned into a nightmare and an eternal secret for the family.
Hugo and his best friend Erwan Ferrieux disappeared three months into the journey and never returned. Their belongings were found on a beach in New South Wales state, leading police to believe they drowned and were then swept under by the current well known to locals but not to tourists.
• Share this news on WhatsApp
• Share this news on Telegram
Hugo’s body was never found and Tânia and her family were only able to hold a funeral with a single recovered bone, discovered after being gnawed by a shark. The mystery deepened when police confirmed the young man was dead before his body was likely eaten by a shark, leaving the family with few clues as to the cause of death.
“He was so excited to start his life that he wanted to have this big adventure and everything was taken away from him,” Tania said in an interview with British tabloid The Sun.
“The last phone call I had with him I was teaching him about safe driving I wish I had warned him about it,” she added.
Tania used the interview with The Sun to warn young people and teenagers thinking about embarking on adventures, advising them to surround themselves with caution. She claims that the beach where Hugo died attracted tourists without adequately warning them of the dangers. There, currents can flow up to 5 mph faster than an Olympic swimmer, pulling even the most experienced swimmers away from shore and leaving them exhausted.
Seek
Residents only found Hugo and Erwan’s belongings on a beach towel the morning after their disappearance and only then was a missing person alarm system activated. As soon as they received the news, Tania and Hugo’s father, whose name was not revealed, boarded a flight to Australia.
Tania remembers: “We flew straight to Australia and when we got there many locals told us that they always attract sea tourists there. It was like a scene from Jaws everyone was enjoying the beach, but there was a big secret “they were hiding above the water”.
“Locals have told us it is notoriously dangerous, but apart from a notice at the entrance and the beach rules, there is nothing to indicate the danger,” she added.
After a week, the search for Hugo and Erwan was called off and Tania had to return home without her son, which she describes as “the hardest thing” she has ever had to do. She assures that if she lived nearby, “I would fight with all my might in Hugo’s name for more warnings on the beach.” “But on the other side of the world it’s difficult,” he laments.
Two years after the young men’s disappearance, human remains were discovered in the sea by underwater fishermen, later identified as Hugo’s femur. Teams confirmed it was a carnivore bite to the young man’s femur, likely caused by a shark, although he is not believed to have been alive at the time of the incident. Erwan’s bones were found at the southern end of Flynn Beach, a few miles down the coast from where they disappeared.