Staff describe ‘nightmare’ search for girl, 11, who drowned at water park

The search for an 11-year old girl who had drowned at a water park during a birthday party was “like a nightmare,” an inquest into the death has heard.

Kyra Hill got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure near Windsor, Berkshire, in August 2022.

A 17-year-old lifeguard named Abbi reported concerning splashing in the beach area where Kyra was eventually found, Berkshire Coroner’s Court heard.

However, searches for the girl were initially carried out on land and in other parts of the lake, the inquest was told.

Loud music was playing and a mother searching for Kyra shouted at a senior member of staff to turn it off, the inquest heard on Wednesday.

Kelly Edwards, who was attending the birthday party, said she also called on staff to ask members of the public to leave the water, but it was not cleared until emergency services arrived.

The administration services manager recalled “shouting, screaming Kyra’s name” as she walked around the park.

She became emotional as she said: “It just seemed that nothing was taken seriously, nothing was deemed as an emergency, and I feel so angry with myself every day that I came out (of the water) and no-one went to the children and asked them where Kyra was.”

The lifeguard who responded to the scene was a school pupil at the time and Ms Edwards described her as a “little girl” because she looked young.

“My daughter was asked by the lifeguard to keep looking for her, had she got any goggles, and to keep looking for Kyra in the water.

“She was seen in the water, and for myself and for us we were told she was missing, so we were looking on the land, and to know someone had seen her and said ‘I’ve seen someone gone down in the water’, and for her not to be listened to. I couldn’t, can’t get my head around it.”

She added: “It just felt like I was in this nightmare, the sort of thing you watch on the TV and you, you think, well, that would never happen.”

Ms Edwards said she shouted at a senior of member of staff that people were still in the water.

Members of the public got out after the mother started screaming “can everyone just stop and start calling Kyra’s name, because she must be somewhere”, she said.

People gathered in a line to swim the width of the lake, she said, adding that she believed this was ordered by a lifeguard.

They swam past the designated swimming area, where Kyra would later be found, and into the main lake, the inquest heard.

One person suggested diving down with goggles, but a staff member said “no, no, no, you can’t dive down because it’s almost like being in the ocean, your breathing and everything has got to be taken into account – it’s really, really deep”, Ms Edwards said.

She told the inquest: “There was another guest there and I was saying ‘I can’t see in the water, once you’ve put your head down it’s so murky you couldn’t see anything’.

“It was so deep, it was so deep in that area, I said ‘I can’t get to the bottom’ and he said ‘no, nor can I’.”

The only depth-warning signs around the beach area said “danger shallow water” and Ms Edwards said she thought it would therefore be “knee height”.

Ms Edwards said: “When I went into the water to look for Kyra you only had to step a few feet and it just dropped, massively.”

There were “various sharp drops” of up to 4.5m (14.7ft) within the swimming zone, the inquest heard on Tuesday.

The lake was 2.68m (8.8ft) deep where Kyra was seen going under, a report carried out after the incident found.

Lifeguard Abbi responded to concerning splashing at 3.20pm and a previous hearing was told emergency services were called to the scene at 3.55pm.

Kyra was found just after 5.10pm and taken to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, where she was pronounced dead.