Family of Sloan Mattingly reveals more details about girl’s tragic death

Loved ones of the 7-year-old girl who died after she got trapped underneath sand at a Florida beach revealed more heartbreaking details about the “freak accident” as the girl’s mother said her “sweet” daughter “forever changed” their lives.   

Sloan Mattingly was on vacation with her Indiana family in the Sunshine State when the tragedy hit.

The first-grader was digging a hole with her older brother Maddox when the sand gave way and submerged her for about 20 minutes last Tuesday.

Authorities and beach-goers frantically tried to dig her out in time, but Sloan later died at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

The girl’s mother, Therese, remembered Sloan as the “purest human being” in a message posted on a GoFundMe page for the family.

“A freak accident happened yesterday while we are here on vacation and it took away our greatest 7.5 years,” she said. “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 the imagination. Our sweet Sloan. What we would give.”

The fundraiser to help the family with funeral costs has exceeded $143,000.

The child’s uncle, Chris Sloan, told KFOR that Sloan tried “grab up” at her 9-year-old brother’s leg “to get up out of the sand,” but “eventually he couldn’t feel her moving anymore.”

“She was non-responsive at the scene is what we know,” the relative reportedly said.

Chris, who lives in Oklahoma, said he and other relatives received a group text to dial in for a conference call where Chris’ brother broke the unfathomable news.  

“Once we all got on the line, my brother, David, said, ‘Ok. What I have to tell you is going to be the worst news of your entire life.’ And it was. He said that she had passed away, that Sloanie had passed away,” Chris told the news station.

“Later we found out that after the sand had caved, she kept trying to grab up Maddox’s leg to get up out of the sand, and eventually he couldn’t feel her moving anymore.

“The sand had been up to his chest, and he was screaming for help, and a lot of people did come and help.”

Maddox survived the scary incident when his father was able to pull him to safety.

The family, from Fort Wayne in the Hoosier State, rarely went on vacation because of the father’s painting business, Chris told KFOR.

“They were having a good time,” Chris said. “They were staying at an Airbnb. Everybody was really excited to actually see them out there.”

He remembered his niece as a child who was “always happy.”

“She was really fun to be around,” he said. “She had a lot of energy and just totally innocent, and that’s what hurts the most in all this.”