Two 17-year-olds in Australia have tragically died after one ‘fell off’ a waterfall and her friend jumped in to try and help her.
The teens, identified by news outlets as Honor Ward and Beau Liddell, passed away after visiting a waterfall at Wappa Falls in Yandina, on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, on January 19.
According to a press release from Queensland Police, emergency services arrived at the scene after receiving reports that a 17-year-old girl, Honor, fell off a waterfall at Wappa Falls and failed to resurface around 2:30pm local time.
Honor had been swimming upstream when she reportedly got caught in the rapids and got swept over the falls.
Beau, who had been at the waterfall with Honor, jumped into the water to try and find her, but police say he then also failed to resurface.
Queensland Fire Department and Police divers began a search and rescue mission at approximately 2:50pm, but it wasn’t until 3:30pm that Honor’s body was found in the water by emergency services.
Four hours later, Beau’s body was found in the water, also unresponsive and deceased.
Both Honor and Beau were former students at the Sunshine Beach State High School, which has said it is ‘heartbroken’ by the loss of the two former students.
Loved ones of both teenagers have spoken out in the wake of the tragedy, with Beau’s father, Adam Liddell, saying his son was ‘liked by everyone’.
“Everyone’s just destroyed at the moment,” he told ABC News.
The grieving father said Adam’s bid to try and help Honor was a reflection of who he was as a person.
“He’d put himself in danger just to help someone,” he said, adding that Beau was one of four siblings.
Honor’s friend, Phoebe Loynd-Andersson, told ABC that Honor was ‘always there for everybody, no matter what she was going through herself’.
“As soon as I met her, she just immediately took me in, and I was just one with her and the group — we all just loved her,” Phoebe said.
“[She] just wanted to be there for other people and she would encourage people.”
Warning signs at Wappa Falls alert visitors to ‘heavy currents, deep water and submerged boulders’, however Adam has argued that there could be ‘more done’ to prevent any similar incidents in the future.
Honor and Beau are not the first people to have died at the swimming spot; at least three other people have lost their lives at Wappa Falls since 2007, ABC reports.
A GoFundMe page has been set up following Beau’s death to help his family cover the costs of his funeral.
