Authorities want to know why the girls were unsupervised.
By Associated Press
Published October 23, 2003
BROOKER - Sisters Natalie and Nicole Salah were known for their curly blond tresses, their smiles and politeness.
"They were just here yesterday, and they're gone," said Lynn Melvin, principal of Brooker Elementary School, where the girls and their older brother attended school.
The girls drowned Tuesday when a boat they were playing in sank in the waters of Crosby Lake near Starke in northeast Florida.
First-grader Natalie, 6, was known as a hugger and good student. Nicole, 5, was in prekindergarten. Both idolized their brother, Jordan Beasley, 10, a fourth-grader at the school.
The three were staying with an elderly relative Tuesday afternoon near the bank of the lake, waiting to be picked up by their mother, Jennifer Beasley.
They climbed into a rickety 12-foot fiberglass boat. A few feet from shore, the boat sank in about 8 feet of water.
Only Jordan made it to shore.
Starke firefighters David Young and Jerry Waters, arriving minutes after being notified, jumped in the water fully clothed and pulled out the girls. They were taken to Shands Hospital in Starke, but doctors were unable to revive them.
Florida Marine Patrol Lt. David Thompson said the boat's drain plug was missing.
About a half dozen counselors, a few ministers and some School Board members went to Brooker Elementary on Wednesday to console students, the faculty and staff.
Bradford County Sheriff Bob Milner said his office was looking into why the children were unsupervised and allowed access to an old boat. The relative the children were staying with was a great-great aunt. Her name was not released. At an assembly outside the small school Wednesday morning, Melvin, a first-year principal, talked to the students about what had happened. Two potted plants with yellow flowers had been placed beneath the flagpole. Some students cried.
"I told them it was a sad day for all of us," Melvin said. "I didn't cry. I was being strong for the students."
