Indiana’s Sloan and Maddox Mattingly were doing what every child does when their toes hit the soft sands of a beach. They started playing and digging.

But the sand, at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach, took on a life of its own and swallowed the two siblings, claiming the life of Sloan, 7, and leaving her brother Maddox, 9, fighting for his life in hospital.

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And now the children’s parents and loved ones are grappling with the “freak accident” that took the life of the “purest human being.”In mid-February, Therese and Jason Mattingly packed their two children Maddox, 9, and Sloan 7, and escaped the chilly winter of Fort Wayne, Indiana to the sunny beaches of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida.

On February 20, before 3 p.m. the family was making memories at the beach, the children playing in a large sand hole near their parents.