A Missouri mom was found dead after she apparently plunged from a balcony at a Mexican resort on a spring break vacation, a report said.
The unidentified woman had been on a trip with her child and other St. Louis-area high school seniors to the Now Jade Riviera Hotel in Cancun, news station KTVI reported.
She’s believed to have fallen from a fourth-floor room at the resort Wednesday.
One of the students on the trip stumbled across the scene after the body was found.
“Going into the trip we were like, ‘This is going to be the best time of our lives. It’s going to be awesome,’” McKenzie O’Neal told the news station.
“I don’t think we ever imagined the worst things that could have happened, that we could be involved with it. We could see it. It’s really scary.”
A resort manager said that authorities determined that the death was an “accident.”
“We have been informed that the authorities have determined that the tragic incident that recently occurred at Now Jade Riviera Cancun was the result of an accident,” the manager told the outlet.
“We extend our sincere sympathy to family and friends of the deceased.”
A spokesperson for the US State Department confirmed the death, though provided no further details about the circumstances that led to the incident, the outlet reported.
The department said the agency is monitoring the investigation led by local authorities.
Ava Scaglione, who is a student at Lafayette High School, said that others appeared shaken by the tragic turn of events.
“You could see the looks on people’s faces. It was truly heartbreaking,” she told the outlet.
“Again, you never know what to expect. In the snap of your fingers, something could be gone.”
