{"id":119383,"date":"2026-01-15T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119383\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:07:08","slug":"unimaginable-nightmare-florida-boys-best-friends-die-after-sand-hole-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119383\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unimaginable nightmare:\u2019 Florida boys, best friends die after sand hole collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Two Florida boys died last weekend when a hole they were digging in sand collapsed and trapped them, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/best-friends-die-florida-after-sand-hole-traps\/story?id=129198238\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/best-friends-die-florida-after-sand-hole-traps\/story?id=129198238\">ABC News.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The teens were buried for more than an hour at Sportsman Park in Inverness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The boys were identified as 14-year-olds George Watts and Derrick Hubbard, ABC News reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A GoFundMe set up for the boys\u2019 families described the \u201cunimaginable nightmare\u201d as a fear that became reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[WATCH BELOW: Girl dies, boy hospitalized after being trapped in sand hole at Florida beach]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWhile playing together, the boys dug a tunnel in sugar sand and were inside when it suddenly collapsed. In an instant, our world was shattered. What should have been another day of childhood adventure turned into a heartbreaking loss that no parent should ever have to endure. Our precious boys were taken from us far too soon,\u201d the GoFundMe reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The two boys grew up \u201cside by side, bonded like siblings,\u201d the GoFundMe said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ABC News said the two boys were students at Inverness Middle School. School officials released a statement on the incident earlier this week:<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Two Florida boys died last weekend when a hole they were digging in sand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7083,28,30,29,30203],"class_list":{"0":"post-119383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-citrus-county","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-inverness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}