On August 7, 2026, rescue teams in Belize concluded a grueling three-plus hour search operation to recover the body of 16-year-old autistic teen Xue Liu, who drowned after jumping into a river to escape a sudden swarm bee attack alongside her elderly father.
The tragedy unfolded near Haulover Bridge, located just outside Belize City along the Phillip Goldson Highway, when Liu and her father were ambushed by a large swarm of bees while walking along the riverbank. Fleeing the aggressive insects, Liu jumped into the water to escape the attack and went missing shortly after.
A combined response team made up of local lifeguards and Belize Coast Guard personnel launched an immediate search effort, conducted in water that ranged between 30 and 35 feet deep. Search lead Tevin Conorque explained that the operation faced multiple dangerous obstacles from the start: poor visibility from murky river water complicated the dive search, and rescue divers also operated under the constant risk of encountering crocodiles known to inhabit the waterway.
Despite these extreme challenges, the team persisted through more than three hours of free diving searches, eventually locating Liu’s body in the exact area where witnesses confirmed she had entered the water. Conorque noted that the team prioritized recovering the teen’s remains to give her grieving family closure, a goal they ultimately achieved after delivering the body to Liu’s brother, who Conorque described as the most profoundly affected by the loss.
“It’s an absolutely tragic outcome that a young life was lost to drowning in this incident,” Conorque told local outlet News 5. “But for our team, the priority was giving this family some measure of peace by bringing their loved one home. We held onto hope through every minute of the search, and that persistence allowed us to get her out for them.”