Parents grow concerned after boys don’t answer phones, what happened to them at Florida park is every parent’s worst nightmare

Two best friends, both 14 years old, died after a sand tunnel they built collapsed on top of them in Inverness, Florida. George Watts and Derrick Hubbard Jr., who went by DJ, had spent two weeks digging the tunnel at Sportsman Park. On January 11, the tunnel suddenly caved in and trapped both boys under several feet of sand.

The boys were in eighth grade at Inverness Middle School and had known each other their whole lives. They were playing in what people call sugar sand, which is very fine and powdery. This type of sand is dangerous because it can fall apart easily. The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said the boys had dug down about four to five feet deep. That Sunday morning, George went home quickly to get his cell phone before heading back to the park to keep working on the tunnel with DJ.

According to The Sun, their parents started to worry when lunch time came and the boys did not come home. DJ’s mom, Destiny Rogers, called both boys on their phones but neither one picked up. She asked her fiancé to go check on them at the park. Another parent used a phone tracking app and saw that the boys had been at the park about an hour before. When family members got to Sportsman Park, they only found the boys’ bikes and shoes sitting near a big pile of sand. The boys were nowhere to be seen.

The reality was far worse than anyone could have imagined

People called 911 around 12:44 in the afternoon. Emergency workers got to the park and started digging as fast as they could to find the boys. It took them about 30 minutes to pull both boys out of the sand. Neither boy was breathing when rescuers found them. DJ was taken to HCA Florida Citrus Hospital in Inverness, where doctors said he had died. George was flown by helicopter to UF Health Shands hospital in Gainesville and put on machines to keep him alive, but he passed away early Tuesday morning at 4:25 a.m.

The small community of Inverness, which is about 70 miles west of Orlando, has been hit hard by what happened. This heartbreaking incident joins other recent cases where emergency response times became critical factors in tragic outcomes. Corey Edwards coached both boys in a program called 352 Legends. He said they were the kind of kids who loved playing outside instead of being on their phones all day. “They were just kids doing what we try to tell kids to do, get outside and play,” Edwards said.

George’s mom, Jasmine Watts, wrote about losing her son on a GoFundMe page that was set up to help both families pay for funerals and other costs. She called what happened an unimaginable nightmare. “These two boys shared a bond that went beyond friendship. They were inseparable, full of life, curiosity, and dreams for the future,” she wrote. So far, people have donated more than $32,000 to help the families.

DJ had just turned 14 on December 30, which meant he was finally the same age as George, who had his birthday back in July. The two had grown up together in the same neighborhood and were looking forward to finishing middle school together. The school brought in counselors to talk with students and teachers who were upset about losing the boys. 

The sheriff’s office said nobody did anything wrong and this was just a terrible accident. Now local officials are telling parents to talk to their kids about how dangerous it can be to dig deep holes or tunnels in sand because it can fall in on them with no warning. Similar to other disturbing patterns in neighborhoods, this tragedy has led officials to look at ways to make community parks safer for children.