A childhood friend watched helplessly as a crocodile killed a woman during a celebration holiday in Queensland, Australia. Cindy Waldron and her lifelong friend Leeann Mitchell had traveled to commemorate Mitchell's completion of cancer treatment.
Attack in shallow waters
The pair, both originally from New Zealand, were paddling in shallow waters of Australia's Daintree National Park on May 29, 2016, when Waldron felt something graze her leg. Witnesses heard her cry out: "A croc's got me, a croc's got me."
Mitchell fought desperately to rescue her friend, but the enormous 16-foot crocodile proved too powerful, dragging Waldron away.
Friend's account
Mitchell told 7 News Spotlight: "We just wanted to run around, and that's exactly what we did, and in the process of doing that, we ended up on the waters' edge. It was really dark. Cindy's back was to the water and mine was to the beach and we were laughing and then Cindy cried out to me and she said: 'It's got me.'"
"I thought that it was just that fright you get when you get in the water and something like seaweed brushes past you and so I put my arms out and she took my arms. I said: 'I've got you babe...it's ok, I've got you.' She was holding me and I was holding her."
"We were pulled...the force was incredible. And in that, I lost (grip) of one arm then we stopped and we'd travelled a big distance...I couldn't feel the ground any longer. I realised there was something and I put my hand out and I felt the top of its head. Then I started trying to punch and trying to fight and I was screaming."
"Then all of a sudden, we were taken again with the same amount of force. I held on as much as I could. I was clawing onto her arm and I was trying to get the other arm up to try and grab her. I couldn't, I couldn't. And then, she was gone."
Aftermath and search
Mitchell was rushed to hospital with puncture wounds to her arm and treated for shock. Waldron's sister described the death as "the worst nightmare" and "probably the most heartbreaking, horrendous thing that's ever happened to any of us really, in our family."
Hours before the attack, Waldron had sent her father, Patrick, a Facebook message: "I'm on the beach, it's a lovely place, I'm having a ball."
Local MP and former crocodile farmer Warren Entsch stated the location was well-known for crocodile-spotting tours with numerous warning signs. "This is a tragedy but it was avoidable," he told reporters. "If you go in swimming at 10 o'clock at night, you're going to get consumed."
An extensive search recovered Waldron's body after an enormous crocodile was captured and destroyed in North Queensland, with human remains found inside its stomach.
Waldron's father and sister visited the beach where she was last seen to pay their respects. Her father, who did not want the crocodile harmed, said: "We need to be here and cry on the beach."
Crocodiles claim an average of two lives annually in Australia's tropical north, according to AFP news agency.
