Background[]
Nine-year-old Isabel Grace Franks died at a Lincoln City, Oregon, beach in August 2014, when a hole she was digging in the sand caved in and buried her. Sand hole collapse kills nine-year-old. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/31/us/oregon-beach-collapse/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Insights on a tragic death at the beach[]
"We heard screaming," Tracey Dudley, who was staying at a nearby hotel, told CNN affiliate KATU. "At first we thought, you know, it was just kids. But it was like screaming and screaming and screaming."
"Her and her siblings were digging a big hole in the sand," Lincoln City police Sgt. Brian Eskridge said. "She was sitting inside, and the hole collapsed. We believe she was under the sand around five minutes."
Franks, her family and friends were visiting the beach from Sandy, Oregon.
Police and firefighters dug her out. She was unconscious and not breathing. Emergency crews performed CPR on her and transported her to a hospital, where she was declared dead.
Mourners left flowers, candles and notes near where she died.
Before the emergency workers arrived, beachgoers had frantically tried to dig her out, but the sand kept collapsing back into the hole, Eskridge said.
Details[]
- The hole containing Franks was big enough for a crouching adult to fit in, witnesses told KATU.