Skip to content 
A fun summer day in the Marina Dunes quickly took a dark turn in July 2013 when 5-year-old Alyssa Bostic was buried alive in the sand. She became unconscious and unable to breathe. With no parents close by, 11-year-old Conner Fitzgerald sprung into action and pulled the little girl to safety before performing CPR on her. If it weren’t for his quick thinking, Bostic might have never made it out alive.
Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video 🙂
Speaking to KSBW news, Fitzgerald described the scene as “terrifying.” He first knew something was wrong when he turned around and saw Bostic’s bag on the ground. That’s when he realized she was trapped under the sand. “I started to dig here because I knew that’s where the head was,” he told the publication as he relived the scary experience.
Upon pulling Bostic out to safety, he realized she was unconscious and unable to breathe, with both her eyes and mouth filled with sand. He told reporters the little girl’s body was “limp” and “lifeless.” Paramedics would later say she was lucky to be alive.
“The girls came running off so I picked her up, dragged her a little bit up the hill, […] and I started doing CPR,” Fitzgerald recalled.
apost
apost.com
The incident took place as Fitzgerald, Bostic, and other local children played at the Marina Dunes in California. The kids were digging up a cave for Bostic. When she entered it, it collapsed on her, and she remained buried for several minutes.
“They dug it out pretty big so she could fit in there, and then it went down.”