Nevaeh Jade Newswanger, 3, died on Sunday when she fell over Whitewater Falls in North Carolina.
A Pennsylvania family is grieving after their 3-year-old daughter was swept over a 411-foot waterfall in North Carolina, People reported.
Nevaeh Jade Newswanger, 3, died on Sunday when she fell over Whitewater Falls in North Carolina. The family was on a hike in the area when the toddler "slipped and fell in the water" while playing in the nearby sand, a GoFundMe set up for the family says.
The family says her parents did their best to retrieve her but Neveah was carried by the powerful current down the waterfall and later found dead, according to the GoFundMe.
Emergency crews responded to a call about the girl at 5:50 p.m. and recovered her body at about 1 a.m. Monday, officials said, according to the New York Post.
The family released a statement via GoFundMe about the devastating news.
"We desperately tried to rescue her but the current was so strong and it swept her down the river and over the falls where the angels caught her," her parents, Keith and Sheri Newswanger, said in a message on the donation page. "She is now our precious angel, so radiant in the presence of God," they added. "Her name is heaven spelled backwards. She was truly a piece of heaven to all who knew her."
Whitewater Falls is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies, according to the US Forest Service.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the GoFundMe page has raised $13,160 of their $25,000 goal. For more information or if you care to donate, click here.
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