Father of Bribie Island fatal shark attack victim Charlize Zmuda reveals moment he first heard of the tragedy

The heartbroken father of 17-year-old Charlize Zmuda who was killed in a fatal Bribie Island shark attack has recounted the harrowing phone call that informed him of the tragedy. WATCH THE VIDEO

When Charlize Zmuda’s car wasn’t in the driveway of her family’s Bribie Island home, her father Steve just assumed the 17-year-old had stayed back at school or gone to work early. Then he heard the sirens.

“Because I’m involved in the surf club I went ‘s**t something has happened over at the beach’,” he said.

Moments later, Mr Zmuda stumbled across a Facebook post about a shark attack at Woorim Beach - the same beach his daughter had frequented since she was a little kid and patrolled as a member of the Bribie Island Surf Life Saving Club.

Mr Zmuda, who heads the local nippers club, said he frantically rang around asking if anyone knew the victim with his worst fear soon confirmed.

WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

‘Steve it’s not good’ … I said ‘Is it a fatality … do we know them?’ …‘Steve I have to tell you, It’s Charlize’ … I said ‘you’re joking’ … I screamed, all the neighbours came running out,” Mr Zmuda recounted of a harrowing phone call he received shortly after the fatal attack.

“My first phone call was to try and get a hold of (my wife) Renee, I couldn’t get her,” he said.

“So then I rang my mum in Sydney and told her … I said ‘mum I have to go the police are coming down the street’ … it was (Senior Sergeant) Duncan Price … and he said ‘you know’ and I said ‘I do’ … I was a broken man, he was a broken man.”

Steve and Renee Zmuda with their then baby Charlize.

Mr Zmuda said when his wife called back he started “screaming down the phone”.

“(Steve) couldn’t talk and I didn’t know what was going on … I screamed at him ‘just tell me!’ … not for one second thinking it would be … I knew it was bad because he couldn’t speak … but in my head I was like ‘where do I need to be?’,” Ms Zmuda said.

Mr Zmuda told his wife to pull over at a nearby service station with a police officer on the way.

“Steph came out, my youngest daughter and said ‘dad what’s happened?’,” he said.

“I said ‘Charlize is dead’ … to see my daughter try to process the fact that she had lost his sister, as a 13-year-old girl … just watching her …”

Mrs Zmuda rushed to the beach.

Charlize Zmuda was fatally mauled by a shark in waters off Bribie Island on Monday, February 3.

Steve Zmuda with a candle for his daughter Charlize at a vigil for her earlier this week. Picture: David Clark

“It rained actually, I was standing there in the rain (at the service station) just not knowing what to do … it didn’t even feel real, it still doesn’t feel real,” she said.

“I just needed to be at the beach. I knew I would be able to feel her there and so a few of us went down.

“(Charlize) had been taken to the (local) ambulance station … I just needed to see her … because I just didn’t want it to be real, Steve couldn’t come (but) Jason Burr, her patrol captain, who just loved her like his own, came with me.”

Charlize, who was lovingly known as “Cha Cha” was fatally mauled by a shark at Woorim Beach near Fifth Ave Park shortly before 5pm on Monday, February 3.

Charlize and Stephanie Zmuda with Santa.

The 17-year-old’s lifeless body was pulled from the surf by an on-duty police officer about 4:45pm but the teen died with injuries to her upper arm and body.

Charlize was at the beach with her best friend but entered the water alone as only she had togs.

Mrs Zmuda said Charlize was a talented musician who had only just attended her Grade 12 formal.

“A police officer who was with us on Monday was her formal partner’s dad. He actually drove her to the formal,” she said.

“I’m so grateful it was him there with us.

“There has been so much support and I think that’s just a testament to how loved she was and how special she was.

“It is truly an honour to see how adored our beautiful Cha Cha was and what an incredible impact she made.”

CHARLIZE’S PARENTS SPEAK - WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE

Charlize Zmuda with her father Steve.

Mrs Zmuda said Charlize worked at Bribie Island’s Pigface Seafood and made “beautiful connections” with everyone she met.

“She truly lifted people up. She was cheeky and witty and loved to banter with family, friends and customers. She brought so much light and love to this world.

“She truly lived without fear and despite the tragic circumstances of her death I know she would want this to remind everyone that tomorrow is not promised and encourage people to get out of their comfort zones and truly live. I can feel her saying ‘Yolo’.

“Her life may have been cut way too short and I am heartbroken that I will never get to see all the amazing things I know she would have accomplished but I find peace in the fact that she crammed so much living into the 17 years she had here on earth … I know she will be watching over us.”

Mrs Zmuda returned to Woorim Beach on Tuesday morning where a cloud had formed in the shape of a love heart.

“I knew she would give me a sign. and that was when I knew that we needed to flip the switch … everything in me was just, I don’t want people to remember how she died, I want people to remember how she lived because she lived such a full life and she just loved hard,” she said.

“Even when she was younger, the only word I could use to describe her is pure … as a 7-year-old she wrote a letter to Santa to say ‘I don’t need anything … I have my family and I have love and that’s all I need’”

Steve and Stephanie Zmuda on Bribie Island after fatal shark attack of Charlize Zmuda. Picture: Richard Walker

Mr Zmuda said Charlize was a daddy’s girl.

“She didn’t say much to me because she was a typical teenager, (but) she was so looking forward to this upcoming IRB racing season … I never actually got to watch her race,” he said.

“(Charlize) was the future of the club.”

Media previously reported that Charlize was swimming about 100 metres off Woorim Beach but Mr Zmuda said “she wasn’t that far out”.

“We bumped into somebody (on Wednesday) that was actually sitting up on the (sand) and she was actually about 25 metres out … she was never 100 metres out,” he said.

Mr Zmuda bravely fronted media less than 24 hours after Charlize was killed as he wanted the community to “feel confident and safe in the water”.

Charlize was in Grade 12, had just got her provisional licence in October and was excited about life after high school.

“She just wanted to travel after school, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do in life other than that she loved living it and loved being at the ocean and I said there’s no rush,” Ms Zmuda said.

“She was talking about marine biology at one stage,” Mr Zmuda added.

Charlize and Stephanie Zmuda.

Renee, Charlize and Steve Zmuda.

Mr Zmuda encouraged beachgoers to swim between the red and yellow flags.

“It was a freak accident that happened the other day … I encourage people to get back in the water … we would never put people at risk,” he said.

Charlize was well known in the community and was one of the co-captains of her surf club, having been a Nipper from the age of eight.

Charlize’s 13-year-old sister Steph will bravely compete in today’s SLS Sunshine Coast U11-U14 Youth Championships at Mooloolaba Surf Life Saving Club.

Participants are expected to don black armbands with wreaths also laid in the surf in honour of Charlize.

Originally published as Father of Bribie Island fatal shark attack victim Charlize Zmuda reveals moment he first heard of the tragedy