The body of the mother of AFL player Rhett Bazzo has been found. She was on a boat with his friends when it crashed into a navigation marker in Perth’s Mandurah estuary.
Shortly after the accident happened at around 10 pm on Saturday, police were called to the estuary.
Deborah, who was a mother of two, was found floating in the water but she could not be revived.
Her husband, John, was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. The other passengers of the boat were not injured.
John was in a serious condition on Sunday night, and an extensive search was carried out for his missing wife, Kylie.
On Monday, the body of the woman, who was 52 years old, was recovered near the island of Creery in the estuary. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
The West Coast Eagles selected Bazzo, who was the son of the late Steve Bazzo, in the 2021 national draft.
Steve, who was a former player in the WAFL, died in 2015 due to skin cancer. Bazzo said that he was proud of his dad and that he would try and live out his childhood dream.
According to 7NEWS, the club is devastated by the news about the incident and is doing everything it can to support the Bazzo family.
The public, as well as police divers and helicopters, were called in to help in the search for the missing woman.
Witnesses Vince and Wendy McCormack said they heard a loud bang before an unsettling silence.
According to Wendy, the boat was going very fast when they heard the loud bang.
It then went straight into a red marker, and there was silence.
The retired couple, who have lived in the area for over 30 years, said they often see boats speeding through the Mandurah estuary, and the horror crash that occurred on Saturday was a tragedy that was waiting to happen.
On Sunday, Peter Morrissey, the police superintendent, said that the search would likely end in tragedy.
He noted that the police had conducted land and water-based searches, and they were currently looking to recover the body.
The officers are still trying to determine what caused the boat to hit the marker.
The police are also looking into the speed of the boat and the other factors that contributed to the accident.
At this stage, it is too early to determine the exact cause of the incident.