Two women who were swept out to sea by freak wave and drowned are identified as shattered loved ones reveal their harrowing final moments
Two close friends who tragically lost their lives at a popular but dangerous beach have been identified.
Flags in the town centre of Streaky Bay, on South Australia 's Eyre Peninsula, flew at half-mast on Wednesday in memory of Zenaida Hunt, 65, and her friend Beth Peters, 67.
The pair were fishing at Back Beach when Ms Hunt was swept away by a large wave on Tuesday.
Ms Peters jumped into the water in a desperate attempt to rescue her friend.
It's understood Ms Peters' husband Carl raced down the beach to raise the alarm after watching the tragedy unfold from the shore.
The women's bodies were found in the water several hours later.
Ms Hunt usually went fishing at the local jetty, which currently off-limits due to repairs, according to her heartbroken husband Michael.
'There's my sweetie,' he told Nine News looking down at her photo.
'It's no good at all,' Mr Hunt said of her death. 'I'm all tense.'
'It was just a bit of bad luck. She went down there and got taken by a wave and that is just it.'
Mr Hunt and his wife, affectionally known as Aida, had been married for 15 years after meeting through one of his friends while in the Philippines.
'She was working down at the clothes factory and she liked gardening,' he sai.d
Her friend has been remembered as a hero who did not hesitate to try and save Ms Hunt.
'She didn't think twice, she went in there to save her friend and I wish she could have made it back,' Ms Peters' niece Karen Dodge told Seven News.
'It was such a heroic act to be brave enough to go in there with the strong currents.
'We adored her, her infectious smile (and) always had a positive outlook on life.'
Back Beach is a popular fishing spot, promoted by the South Australian Tourism Commission as an 'excellent location' for beach fishing.
While it's a popular destination, swimming is strongly discouraged due to the presence of powerful rips and heavy swells.
The coastline is notorious for its unpredictable surf and has claimed lives in the past.
The tragedy comes four months after surfer Lance Appleby, 28, was mauled to death by a shark in nearby Streaky Bay.
'It is another tragic blow for our community of Streaky Bay and my condolences go out to the family and friends at this very tough time,' Streaky Bay mayor Travis Barber said.
'My thoughts and thanks also go out to the volunteers and first responders that have had to deal with yet another tragic incident of which would be very close to home for many of them, as it does when you live in a small close knit community.
'We will rally around them and pull together again.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Retired builder, 60, drowns in hotel pool while playing with grandchildren just hours before son's dream Cyprus wedding
A British grandfather died just hours before his son's wedding in Cyprus - after drowning in a hotel pool while playing with his grandchildren. John Fazackerley, from Cheshire, had flown to Paphos to watch his son Sean marry fiancée Vicky in a long-planned ceremony. But tragedy struck the day before the wedding when the retired builder, 60, failed to resurface during a game in the water with the youngsters. Guests rushed to help and performed CPR at the poolside at around 2.30pm on May 25. Sean, 30, claims resort staff struggled to locate a defibrillator - and when they finally did, none of them knew how to use it. He told MailOnline: 'We ended up finding it ourselves in a cupboard near reception, and a family member used it.' An ambulance arrived about 15 minutes later and took John to Paphos General Hospital - but the family say they weren't allowed to travel with him. In the days since his death, Sean and his family have launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to bring John's body home - saying they've been 'let down' by local authorities. John was taken to Paphos General Hospital, 15 minutes away from the beach side resort and the worried family followed along in a car. But Sean said when they arrived but was chaos and hotel staff demanded John's passport details which the family didn't have to hand because the documents were securely stored in a safe in the hotel room. As they tried to locate the passports, Sean told MailOnline how his mother, Julie, was the only one allowed in to the hospital with his father. Meanwhile the rest of the Fazackerley family were forced to sit outside on plastic chairs as they waited for news of their father. Sean said: 'We followed in a taxi and we had to register him with his passport details but it took time because my mum was in the hospital - she wasn't in the hotel and my dad had set the safe pin so we couldn't access it but the hospital wouldn't move forward until they had the passport details.' He added: 'We had to sit outside on chairs in the reception.' Sean went on to describe how the earth-shattering news of his father's death was delivered to the worried family and slammed the hospital for dealing with them so offhandedly. The IT manager said: 'We were called over and they said they couldn't save him but the door wasn't shut and it was in public so people could walk past and hear. Guests rushed to help John, performing CPR at the poolside before he was taken to the hospital where the family were told he had tragically died (John pictured with his wife Julie) 'We got five minutes with him and they just didn't treat us with any empathy.' Sean is now raising funds to bring his father home and confessed he is unsure when his father will be brought back in to the UK because of confusion over the postmortem from Cyprus. He said he feel forgotten and frustrated but has vowed to keep pursuing the Cypriot government and police. 'We feel forgotten, the way we have been treated, they only wanted to know about the funeral,' he explained. Despite the shock of his father's death, Sean decided to go ahead with the wedding to his fiancée and made sure to include a special tribute to John. He confessed that his father had been particularly excited for an ice cold beer following the ceremony and so in his honour they placed a family snap of John next to a cooler of beer and drank in his honour at the party. He said: 'We haven't had a funeral yet but we paid tribute to him in the wedding The one thing he said he was excited for was the bar and so we set up a picture of him next to an ice bucket full of beers so he was there with us'. Sean added that life without his father has been difficult, especially for his mother who has moved in with him and his new bride Vicky. 'Now we're just trying to support my mum and she's moved in with us for a bit,' Sean explained. He added that the doting grandfather is missed by the entire family and especially the grandchildren. Newly-married Sean said: 'He was a very family-orientated man and his final moments were with his grandkids, playing. 'He loved fishing and spending time with the grandkids and we miss him.'
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Double tragedy off Maine coast after fisherman and girlfriend encountered SHIPWRECK while gathering clams
A fishing boat captain and his girlfriend have died after encountering a shipwreck off the coast of Cape Cod. Shawn Arsenault, 64, and Felicia Daley, 54, vanished without a trace after setting off from Rock Harbor in Orleans, Massachusetts to go clamming on Sunday. A frantic manhunt was launched for the pair, with officials finally finding Arsenault's sunken boat three days later about five miles away, near Eastham. The couple were found inside the 'wheelhouse' of the boat, the captain's brother Paul Arsenault told the Boston Globe. They were not wearing life jackets and had not made a distress call, he added. Paul suspects his brother's beloved Seahorse, a 30-foot white-hulled vessel, got 'hooked up on a wreck that was on the bottom of the ocean'. He thinks the incident 'happened so fast' that Arsenault and Daley were unable to contact emergency services for help. The Coast Guard is also investigating reports that the fisherman threw electronic electronic equipment into the water before leaving the harbor. Arsenault and Daley planned to go clamming near the Target Ship Wreck in Cape Cod Bay aboard the Seahorse, which features a painted mermaid on the bow. They were reported missing on Tuesday morning when the harbormaster saw Arsenault's truck still parked at marina two days after the Seahorse left the harbor. Authorities began to search for the pair at the boat's last known location, which according to a cell phone ping was roughly two miles offshore from Chatham. Search crews were set to both sides of the harbor because 'phone pings have a high degree of variability'. The Coast Guard issued an urgent emergency alert and carried out an extensive search of Cape Cod Bay's fishing area overnight. A recreational fisherman spotted Arsenault's missing boat on Wednesday morning which, according to the Coast Guard, was found 'off shore inside the bay'. The cellphone ping 'put them offshore in Chatham on the wrong side', a spokesperson added. Officials previously said weather likely wasn't a factor in their disappearance, although search efforts were hampered by fog and thunderstorms. Paul said his brother and Daley, who had been dating for several months, were both experienced on boats. He told the newspaper that owning the Seahorse was 'Shawn's dream' and Sunday marked 'only his third time out' on the boat. Arsenault recently got 'new radar' and a 'fish finder', Paul added, noting his brother 'was excited' about his new equipment. Witnesses reported seeing Arsenault throw equipment overboard when he left the dock on Sunday morning. 'I noticed in the surf there was something floating, so I went down to see what it was, and it turned out to be a GPS unit off of a boat,' local resident Sam Miller, who spotted the device while walking along the beach with her father told CBS Boston. 'We could tell it was a GPS unit off a boat... it had blue tape on it that said 'F/V Seahorse.' The Coast Guard confirmed it have received reports from locals, but did not say what equipment may have been tossed. The agency is investigating the reports. But Paul remains skeptical, telling the Globe that he 'can't imagine' Arsenault throwing anything overboard because 'all that stuff means a lot to him'. The grieving brother also paid tribute to Arsenault and his partner, whom he claims were 'absolutely nuts about each other'. He hailed the fishing captain as a 'hero' and said he was 'very loved in his community', sharing how Arsenault would go out of his way to help those in need. 'There was one gentleman with Parkinson's ... my brother would cook him dinner every night and walk it down to him,' he told the newspaper. 'That's the kind of person he was.' Arsenault also 'loved being on the water,' Paul explained, telling WCVB: 'He loved the excitement. He loved being his own boss. He loved being a captain.' He added the tragedy is 'like a nightmare' and he is still 'waiting to wake up'. The couple's friends are also mourning their deaths, with Arsenault's friend Patrick sharing how the late fisherman was 'cracking jokes' and had a voice so loud that 'you would know he was in the next town over'. Daley's friend Scott Amerault told TV station 'if you had her as a friend, you had a good friend'. Although he is wondering what went wrong in the harbor, Amerault said the ocean 'takes you when it wants to' and 'you can't question what the ocean does'. Some locals have suggested the structure of the boat may have contributed to the tragedy, with one alleging it was 'not a very stable boat'. 'It had a round shine, and a lot of gear high. If it got hung up on a drag or something like that, it'd go right over,' charter operator Hap Farrell to WCVB. Coast Guard Commander Cliff Graham, in a statement to NBC 10, confirmed the tragedy and said: 'Our hearts go out to the families of both persons onboard. 'The level of support from our maritime response partners and members from the fishing and local community was remarkable. It directly contributed to detection of the vessel and closure for the family.'
The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
Inside ‘hedonistic' downfall of plumber whose £11m lottery jackpot cost him his life after blowing fortune in 3 years
LOTTERY winner Joshua Winslet was found dead in his home after his £11million prize caused his life to spiral out of control. The Australian plumber was just 22 years old when he landed the fortune in 2017, but he blew it all in just three years after he was crippled by addiction. 8 8 His parents tried to help him manage the eyewatering sum of cash by stashing it in a trust fund, but tragically, that wasn't enough to save him. In 2022, he died at home from health complications caused by excessive drug use. His death was not reported by New Zealand or Australian press at the time. His tragic end came shortly after he was arrested and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for supplying drugs and possessing a firearm. A friend of Josh spoke of his death and told the MailOnline: "It was such a shock and absolutely devastating, but sadly a lot of us were so worried this is what it was coming to." Looking back at his lottery win, she said: "When I found out he won through the grapevine, I thought, 'Oh, wow, that's extraordinary.' "I was so happy for him. Out of everyone from our school, and after all the bullying he copped, he deserved it more than anyone," she added. Another said how he called her and her boyfriend to break the news of his Powerball winnings. She said that she initially thought he was joking, but after he sent her a screenshot of his Lotto app, she realised he was being serious. But how did the hardworking tradie's life take such a drastic turn? Josh was living on New Zealand's South Island at the time and had suffered severe bullying over his 'physical deformities' that were caused by Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome. Duane syndrome stops the eye muscles from developing properly, which affects eye movement. Goldenhar syndrome causes abnormalities in the formation of the bones in the face and head. It can also cause spinal issues and benign cysts to form on the eye, as well as impacting internal organs. He'd had a string of surgeries as a child to treat the syndromes. Josh was also born with a singular horseshoe-shaped kidney and an irregular heartbeat, stopping him from playing contact sports. The torment inflicted on him by his peers was so severe that when he was in Year 10 he left school and studied at Adelaide University Senior College in South Australia. He studied for around six months before leaving to do a plumbing apprenticeship. When he was 20, he moved to New Zealand's South Island to look for work. Around this time, he used the last £9 ($19) in his bank account to buy a last-minute ticket for the Powerball draw and won £11million ($22milion). But the cash began to burn a hole in his pocket, and he soon started splashing it on a-class drugs. In 2020, cops raided the "party house" and found an unlicensed firearm Mauser handgun and ammunition hidden in his bathroom. A horde of illegal substances, including 28.3 grams of MDMA and 2.27g of cocaine, was also seized. Investigators received a tip-off the lottery winner was allegedly manufacturing drugs at the property. Josh, who was 27 at the time, pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence. He was sentenced to three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of 18 months. The sentence was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, with supervision. Shocking images released by South Australia's District Court showed the inside of his trashed New Port mansion at the time. Empty bottles of booze, bongs, bags of MDMA, cocaine and marijuana appeared to be littered around the bachelor pad. Nitrous oxide canisters, cigarettes and half-drunk glasses of wine were also seen strewn across a marble table. Another snap showed a large bowl filled with a mystery white powder inside his fridge, alongside a pack of Red Bull cans and beer boxes. Chaotic jumbles of rubbish and clothes were left dumped on the floor in an "appalling" state. Judge Heath Barklay said that Josh had "lost motivation" for life and had adopted a "hedonistic lifestyle". He said: "Because of the money that you had won, there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy yourself. "You had lots of money so you could afford to buy large amounts of drugs, which you would use yourself and supply to your so-called friends from time to time." 8 8 8 8 8 8
