2/22/24- A 7 year old girl and 9 year old boy were trapped in a sand hole collapse in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida. 

On February 20 at 3:00 the children were trapped after the sand collapsed. The hole was 6 feet deep and collapsed on the children trapping them, according to CBS News.

The sand was up to the boy’s neck and the girl was fully submerged in the sand. Around 20 people were digging on the beach trying to find them.

Once the children were rescued from the sand, they were rushed to the hospital where the girl was pronounced dead. The boy is still recovering in the hospital and is in stable condition.

The Sheriff’s office has stated that the boy and girl’s family were on vacation from Indiana and the case remains under investigation. 

1/28/24- A witness by the name of Harry Defina reported that he previously saw  “a man, 40-ish years old, thin, medium height — he was digging a really big hole.” This disproves the idea that the kids, now revealed as Sloan and Maddox Mattingly, dug the hole themselves. 

Harry Defina said that,“It was massive and it ended up being like 18 feet by 6 feet.” Harry Defina soon witnessed the children swallowed by the seemingly endless pit. 

The dad was able to pull the boy out but the girl remained trapped in the pit for more than 20 minutes, said Harry Delfina. 

The mother of both children started a GoFundMe page to support the family. The page has raised $145,000 to cover hospital and funeral costs for the family.

There were 52 instances in which people became buried in holes due to collapsed sand — with 31 of them dying from 1997 to 2007, according to the New England Journal of Medicine report.

The American Lifeguard Association has come out and advised beachgoers to not dig holes deeper than knee deep.