It Was the 'Best Day of Her Life.' Then the Boulder Fell

Gianna Buzzetta of California described March 23 as the best day of her life. It was also the day the 26-year-old rising star in the culinary world was tragically killed. Buzzetta had fulfilled her lifelong dream of seeing a waterfall up close while vacationing with her boyfriend in Hawaii, but she arguably got too close. After hiking to the Makaleha Falls waterfall on the island of Kauai, Buzzetta and her boyfriend, Connor, were standing in the water when they heard a loud noise that turned out to be a boulder dislodging from up above the falls. As Connor looked up, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from, the rock "landed on [Buzzetta]," her father, Sal Buzzetta, tells KGTV.

Connor pulled Buzzetta from the water but, lacking phone service, had to run 3 miles to get help, per KNSD. Buzzetta—a former pastry chef at the Michelin-starred Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad, California—was eventually airlifted to a hospital, where she died of her injuries on March 24. "It's like something is sucked out of you," mother Caty Buzzetta tells KGTV. But the parents, who flew to Hawaii to say their goodbyes, find solace in knowing Buzzetta's final moments were full of joy. "She had told her boyfriend, Connor, that day, he had fulfilled her dreams and it was the best day of her life," her mother says. A crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $40,000 for the family. It describes Buzzetta as a "soon-to-be fiance (sic)."