Carsten Klint-Pedersen was having dinner with his wife Michelle when they received a phone call that their daughter had broken her arm.
“One of the friends who was up there with her called to say that she had fallen,” he said.
“We threw the dinner in the fridge and drove to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.”
His daughter, Annabelle Klint-Pedersen, had been on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for an end-of-school celebration.
The Brisbane teenager was visiting a lookout at Moffat Beach to watch the sunset when she slipped and fell down a cliff.
“We went into the emergency department and she hadn’t arrived and they said they were going to figure out where she was,” the devastated father said.
Emergency services were called to the Moffat Beach lookout on Saturday night. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
“We got taken to a family room where we were waiting for quite a bit of time and then suddenly, we could see that her phone started to move on Life360 [mobile location app].”
But tragically the phone’s movement was a result of the emergency operation to save the 17-year-old’s life after she sustained serious head injuries.
“The police came in and there was a social worker sitting with us – they told us she had passed away and that somebody had tried to resuscitate her for 45 minutes,” Mr Klint-Pedersen said.
“They couldn’t save her.
“My heart is broken and I’ve never felt anything like it, but I think it’s even worse for her mother — she is devastated.”‘The biggest heart’
Annabelle, or Bella as she was affectionately known, leaves behind her parents Carsten and Michelle and her older sister Emma.
Her father said his daughter’s cheekiness was a “bright light” in everybody’s life.
“She had the biggest heart, she loved so many people and they loved her back,” he said.
“Bella always knew how to win an argument when she was arguing with us and would never take no for an answer. She was just larger than life.”
Mr Klint-Pedersen grew up in Denmark and moved to Australia in 2000.
He said his daughter was about to move to his homeland for six months.
“She had this amazing half year to look forward to, we were going to have an amazing Christmas and her and I were travelling to Denmark together.
“She was heading to the International People’s College, which is all about provoking different conversations with different cultures and trying to understand people with different viewpoints.
Flowers have been left as a tribute at the Moffat Beach site. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Sam Audas-Ryan)
He said Bella “always wanted to help people” — particularly kids who did not have it easy.
“She was so excited about going there [Denmark] and starting that whole journey and being able to visit my family on the weekends,” he said.
Mr Klint-Pedersen said he got the chance to meet with Bella’s friends after her death.
“Those poor girls, they were there,” he said.
“It was good to see one of the girlfriends coming here and talking to us and giving us a little bit of an explanation about what happened.
“She said they had the best day, that day — being typical teenage girls — it was wonderful to hear.”
Community support
Bella had just graduated from Hillbrook Anglican School in Brisbane.
In a statement the school said it was devastated by the news.
“We are deeply shaken by this loss and have reached out to the family to offer our sincerest condolences.”
Mr Klint-Pedersen said the family had been shown plenty of support from the community.
“The school has been wonderful, we’re planning to hold her life celebration service there,” he said.
Mr Klint-Pedersen said he wanted his daughter to be remembered as someone who brought light into others’ lives.
“She really tried to help everybody, she made it her mission to make sure everybody was looked after, taken care of and felt loved,” he said.
“She was an amazing person.”