Wannabe travel influencer, 24, dead after truck swept into river on dream vacation
A wannabe travel influencer drowned on her dream vacation alongside two other women when their pickup truck was swept away in a swelling river.
French vlogger Emma Marie Laurent, who called herself a “barefoot BFF” online, was exploring northern Nicaragua with two others when they got caught in heavy rain in the early hours of Oct. 9, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported.
The Toyota Hilux they were in got into difficulty when the driver — the only person to survive — tried to cross the Nahualapa River, which is usually calm but can be dangerous in heavy storms.
The pickup was swept away by the torrent, killing Laurent, 24, Swiss national Noe Luscher, 20, and Nicaraguan hotel worker Karen Lopez Montano, according to La Prensa.
Driver Martin Gerardo Garcia Giron managed to escape, authorities told the outlet.
“They crossed a river at the time when they [shouldn’t have],” Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua’s co-president, said.
“Rivers are deceptive. You think they are calm and suddenly the current comes and we have tragedies like this.”
Laurent was killed just a week after sharing a now-poignant post from Portugal reflecting on her life.
“I think the most beautiful people, inside and out, are those who know how to admire the world around them,” she wrote in French.
The vlogger, who had 43,000 followers and described herself as living between two suitcases, had documented her travel and van-life adventures – exploring Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.
On Sept. 26, she shared a reel of herself waking up from the back of a van and captioned the post, “The goal in life: to find someone who prefers this to a five-star hotel.”
Authorities are investigating how the truck overturned. It was unclear if the driver would face charges.