A family vacation turned tragic when two young children became trapped in a sinkhole on a Florida beach. The hole collapsed on the children, burying them alive. The older brother, Maddox Mattingly, 9, survived the incident after a hospitalization, but his younger sister, Sloan Mattingly, 7, did not.
Now, witnesses are coming forward with claims that the children were not responsible for the hole. Instead, they claim an adult male dug out the massive pit, which one man estimates was at least 18 feet wide and 6 feet deep.
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Witnesses are still coming to terms with the tragedy.
Harry Defina told NBC 6 that he is still trying to process the accident.
"I see kids in the hole. I could see the boy a little bit, but all I can see… I’m not going to be able to finish this … all I could see was the top of the girl’s head," he said Thursday. "I saw the father was just beside himself."
The father managed to pull his son out of the hole but couldn’t reach his daughter in time. She was trapped for more than 20 minutes and was pronounced dead at the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
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Defina said the hole was 18 feet wide and 6 feet deep.
He saw the grown man digging the hole before the children began playing in it.
“I was walking by the beach and I saw a man, 40-ish years old, thin, medium height,” Defina said, according to NBC 6. “He was digging a really big hole, like 5-by-5 and up to his chest. I looked at him and he looked back and I walked away, I didn’t think to go over and tell him not to do it," he said.
"I'm even upset that someone would imply that those kids dug that hole. They didn’t dig that hole. It was massive and it ended up like 18-feet-by-6-feet.”
'We experienced the purest human being and we are forever changed by her,' Sloan's mother wrote.
After the hole collapsed on the children, beachgoers used their hands, boards, and shovels to try to free the children underneath.
"It's still such an upsetting episode to have been there," Defina said.
The family, who had traveled from Fort Wayne, Indiana, shared news of the tragedy on social media.
“A freak accident happened yesterday while we are here on vacation and it took our greatest 7.5 years,” Sloan’s mother Therese Mattingly wrote on Facebook. “Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss … don’t do that to us. We experienced the purest human being and we are forever changed by her. We love you beyond any stretch of imagination. Our sweet Sloan.”
Florida officials will discuss lifeguards and other safety measures for this particular beach.
Back in Florida, officials plan to hold a moment of silence for Sloan during a Town Commission meeting. They will also discuss lifeguards, ordinances, and a request for a memorial for the 7-year-old.
Friends back in Indiana were shocked to learn of this tragedy. "This world has a whole range of different types of people and parents, and they’re one of the best,” Joe Piwoszkin said, according to NBC 6.
Someone close to the family has launched a GoFundMe page to offset funeral costs and help the family as they try to move forward. It has exceeded its goal, raising more than $150,000 thus far.
