COMMENT: Julian Rocks drowning was almost a hidden tragedy

WHILE at the Suffolk Park pub on Saturday night a friend approached me asked had I heard about the “woman who had drowned” off Byron last week.

WHILE at the Suffolk Park pub on Saturday night a friend approached me asked had I heard about the "woman who had drowned" off Byron last week.

She said she hadn't read anything about it in the paper and asked whether we would we be following it up.

Upon making inquiries at work I was told that our reporter had tried several times to confirm there had been a drowning with police and emergency service contacts to no avail.

Lacking any detail other than this basic tip off we were unable to take it any further.

On Monday, a "friend of a friend" of the drowned woman rang and asked whether we had written anything about the tragic passing as she couldn't find the story on our website.

Armed with a name and a few more details, we were able to piece together today's front page story.

But it begs the question, how can someone drown off one of the most popular tourist destinations in the land and there isn't any official confirmation it has even occurred?

I'm not pointing the finger at police or the ambulance services, who are just doing their jobs as best they can.

Servicing the mainstream media shouldn't be their main concern.

But how someone can drown in front of their whole family and that incident not register on some official or unofficial radar is puzzling.

In this day and age of social media it is incredible that something wasn't published about the drowning until the husband posted something on Facebook.