A mother has faced court over the death of her 11-year-old daughter, who drowned after the pair were pulled from a submerged SUV. The mother, who received more than $40,000 in donations through a GoFundMe appeal following the tragedy, is accused of causing her daughter's death.
The 50-year-old woman appeared at Tenterfield Local Court in northern New South Wales, Australia, to face four charges stemming from the incident. Police allege the woman crashed her SUV into a tree off the Bruxner Highway in the NSW Northern Tablelands on the afternoon of September 10 last year. The vehicle then allegedly entered a dam and sank around 3:30 p.m.
Emergency services rescued both the mother and her daughter from the vehicle, but the girl could not be revived. Following the accident, the mother described her child as "the light of my life" and a "gift from God."
Investigators have charged the mother with dangerous driving occasioning death, negligent driving occasioning death, driving under the influence of drugs, and driving with an illicit drug present in her blood. The charges followed a lengthy investigation that included the examination of dashcam footage.
Following the crash, community members contributed to a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $40,000. At the time, the woman stated that the outpouring of support spurred her to "share a message of hope."
She is quoted as saying, "If we can come away in our darkest of days and have gratitude, then we can learn we can choose to have hatred or we can choose to have love." The case is scheduled to return to Armidale Local Court on August 19.