Tragedy struck for a family in four while on vacation in Florida.
A seven-year-old girl was killed after she and her brother became trapped in a sand hole.
The siblings were having fun digging through the sand at a Florida beach before tragedy struck.
Heartbreak at the beach…
According to officials, Sloan Mattingly was pulled out from the sand after being buried for about 20 minutes after the sand collapsed on the siblings.
Her brother Maddox was rescued from the hole at the Lauderdale-by-the Sea beach and was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Their father Jason, 35, confirmed the little girl’s passing to Wane 15 and said she was seven years old.
The child was “full of love and life” before her passing, according to her heartbroken father.
The siblings, along with their dad and mom Therese, 36, were visiting from Fort Wayne, Indiana when the unthinkable happened on Tuesday.
Audio of the 911 call reporting the incident offers a glimpse into the frantic moment as more than 12 adults tried to save the siblings trapped in the sand.
Witnesses said the children were digging the hole and playing inside of it when the ground gave way.
Cell phone footage show the moment a crowd of desperate beachgoers started trying to dig them out before firefighters arrived.
Bystanders recorded the moments after the collapse, which showed people on their knees digging with their hands through the sand.
Some of the beachgoers tried to hold the walls back to stop more sand from collapsing in on the children.
When she emerged from the sand, Sloan did not have a pulse.
She was declared dead at the hospital, according to officials.
Her brother Maddox was seen walking outside the hospital on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, their school back in Indiana, Lafayette Meadows Elementary School, issued a statement on Sloan’s passing.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write this letting you know we lost a precious member of the Lafayette Meadows school family,” the statement began.
“Sloan Mattingly was a bright, sweet, loving 1st grade student in Ms. Vanbrocklin’s class.”
“Sloan passed away on Tuesday,” the statement continued.
“We will be talking with Ms. Vanbrocklin’s class, as well as Ms. Kilbourne’s class, as Sloan’s brother is a member of that classroom, on Thursday.”
“Our administration team and counselors have support resources available for any student or staff member who is in need during this time of loss,” the statement said.
Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire, told DailyMail on Wednesday that the adults who were with the children were too distraught to provide additional details at the scene.
She said the hole was about five to six feet deep when it collapsed, leaving the boy buried up to his chest with the girl completely buried beneath him.
It wasn’t immediately clear if any adults were helping the children dig the hole or were playing in it with them.
In the aftermath of the collapse a crowd of people could be seen standing around the massive pit.
While sand hole deaths are very rare, they are not unheard of.
Just last week at Jersey Shore Beach, a toddler became trapped after a hole he was playing in collapsed and buried him.
Luckily, after an initial panic, the boy’s father was able to save him.
In May 2023, a 17-year-old boy died in the small resort town of Frisco, on the Outer Banks in Virginia.
His death came after he became trapped in a hole that was dug in a back-dune area behind the beach’s primary dune along the Atlantic Ocean.
The teenager was buried under several feet of sand after an adjacent dune apparently collapsed into the hole.
After his passing, a property management and vacation home company in the Outer Banks Seaside Vacations wrote a blog after a fatal sand collapse in the area about the dangers of digging holes at the beach.
“Sand is, by nature, structurally unstable,” the post began.
“Beach erosion, storms, and the removal of sand can weaken the area, potentially causing issues even after the hole has been filled back in.”
The property management company recommended never digging deeper than knee height, especially not in an area with dunes.