9-Year-Old Girl Who'd Just Started Hunting Is Shot Dead

New Year's Day was the last day of deer hunting season in Colleton County, SC, which makes what happened there this week even more tragic. WCBD reports that a father and his 9-year-old daughter were accidentally shot and killed in Walterboro while hunting, just a few weeks after the girl had shot her first deer ever. The Colleton County coroner has IDed the deceased as 30-year-old Kim Drawdy and his daughter Lauren Drawdy. Per WCIV, an emergency call came in around 2:30pm Wednesday, and the bodies of the two were soon found in a wooded area about a half-mile off the road.

According to the state's Department of Natural Resources, the Drawdys were taking part in what's called a drive hunt, which is where some members of the hunting group walk through the woods to drive deer toward other hunters waiting at certain locations. Another hunter reportedly thought the father and daughter were deer and fired at them. Autopsies are set to be performed on both on Sunday, per WCSC. Kim Drawdy's brother says he's "devastated," adding: "I couldn't believe it when I first got the news. ... It broke my heart. ... A twin brother and now there's only one left." As for Lauren, a neighbor tells WCIV she was devoted to her father: "She loved her daddy to death." The DNR is investigating the shooting. (More hunting stories.)