The Broward Sheriff's Office has released the harrowing 911 calls after a 7-year-old girl died and her brother was left in critical condition after they fell into a sand hole and got trapped Tuesday at a beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Sloan Mattingly was identified Wednesday as the young girl who died, and 9-year-old Maddox Mattingly is her older brother.
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An initial report from BSO stated Sloan was five years old, but investigators have since confirmed she was seven.
“Don't tell us you’re sorry for our loss – don’t do that to us," their mother wrote on Facebook. "We experienced the purest human being and we are forever changed by her. We love you beyond any stretch of the imagination. Our sweet Sloan. What we would give."
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Broward Sheriff's deputies and paramedics responded shortly after 3 p.m. to the 4400 block of El Mar Drive, where footage from Chopper 6 showed crowds of people standing around a massive sand hole that was roped off.
The 911 calls came from witnesses who were on the beach behind the High Noon Beach Resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
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"The father started yelling for help," said one witness who called 911. "He said his child is caught in a hole in the sand they were digging. The mom is yelling, 'My daughter is in there.'"
People are heard screaming in the background as they try to help recover the children.
According to Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, the hole was about 5 to 6 feet deep.
Detectives say the children and their parents were on vacation from Indiana and that the children were digging a hole in the sand when it collapsed and they became trapped.
When emergency crews arrived, they found Maddox buried up to his chest in the sand, but Sloan was completely buried underneath the sand.
Cellphone video from a witness showed desperate beachgoers using their hands to dig sand out of the hole as they tried to rescue the kids trapped underneath.
"There is a little girl buried under the sand and we cannot see her," another witness told 911 operators. "My husband's up there and a bunch of men are digging on the beach."
Rescuers used support boards to keep sand from collapsing further in as they used shovels with the help of good Samaritans to dig the children out, King said. She said it wasn't clear how long they were buried.
"Oh my God, they're still digging and yelling," said a third caller. "Oh God ... They can't find her."
The two children were taken to Broward Health Medical Center, but later that day, Sloan was pronounced dead.
The circumstances of this incident remain under investigation, according to BSO.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family bring Sloan home from Florida and pay for funeral expenses. To donate, click here.
