The New Year started off with great tragedy for one family after father Kim Drawdy and his 9-year-old daughter Lauren lost their lives on New Year’s Day.
The Walterboro, South Carolina pair were out bonding in nature when they were both shot and killed in a hunting accident gone wrong.
According to CNN, the father and daughter were with two fellow hunters in a wooded area on the last day of the hunting season. The members of their group were actively moving the deer to an area where they intended to hunt.
Things went terribly wrong when one of the hunters in their group accidentally mistook the pair for deer, shooting at and striking both the father and daughter. Investigators have not provided more insight into why the victims were mistaken for deer.
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Kim and Lauren Drawdy, pictured below, were killed on New Year’s Day when hunters accidentally mistook them for deer.
“When I got the message, I just couldn’t believe it,” Kim’s brother Benny Drawdy shared with WCBD. “My heart stopped when they told me it was my brother and his daughter.”
“Of all days, ringing in the new year, something like this happens. I got a phone call. They said there was a hunting accident in Walterboro. They thought it was my brother and we come to find out it was.”
“It’s been a rough night…a rough night for everybody,” Drawdy added.
According to autopsy reports, both Kim and Lauren Drawdy died from buckshot pellet wounds to the chest.