Brazilian Mother and Daughter Killed in the Nice Attack to Be Buried in Switzerland

07/19/2016 - 11h15

The family of Elizabeth Cristina de Assis Ribeiro, who was killed in the Nice attack on 14 July when she tried to save her 6-year-old daughter Kayla, decided that their bodies would be buried in Switzerland where her mother, husband and two other daughters live.

The family's worst fears were confirmed around 11:30 pm on Sunday (17th) when they received a telephone call from Itamaraty with the confirmation that the French police had positively identified Elizabeth, 30, through DNA testing, and that she was on the official list of the 84 dead in the terrorist attack.

"It was like the ground was pulled out from under me", said her mother, Inês Gyger, who had driven by car from Nice with the rest of the family looking for information about Elizabeth who had been missing for three days.

"Now we can take the next step, move on. We'll deal with the burial of my daughter and granddaughter and rebuild our family's life."

The hair-dresser from Rio was married to Swiss carpenter Sylvan Solioz. He was able to save their two younger daughters Djulia, age 4, and Kymea, 6 months.

Kymea was in her mother's lap when the truck driven by Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel bore down on the crowd of 30,000 people celebrating the Bastille Day holiday on the beachfront sidewalk in Nice.

Elizabeth only had enough time to put her youngest daughter in her father's arms. According to her husband, Elizabeth was briefly revived by emergency personnel and spoke with him before being taken away unconscious.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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