Woman drowns while filming afternoon swim on Facebook livestream at Canada hotel

‘She worked with seniors right until the end,’ says friend of Ontario careworker

Wendy Nyabuto, 24, died in a swimming pool last week in Chatsworth, Ontario (GoFundMe / Enock Nyabuto)

A 24-year-old woman tragically drowned while filming an afternoon swim on a Facebook livestream in Canada.

Careworker Hellen “Wendy” Nyabuto’s family is now seeking help to repatriate her body from Toronto to her home country of Kenya.

“On Thursday 18th August, Hellen was enjoying an afternoon swim when she tragically drowned,” her younger brother Enock Nyabuto wrote on a GoFundMe campaign. “Your generous contributions towards this cause are highly appreciated as we go through this extreme circumstance of losing a loved one.”

Nyabuto was staying at a Key Motel in Chatsworth, Ontario, when she appeared smiling and interacting with viewers of a Facebook livestream, which has since been removed from social media. Her family said she was doing a temporary job in nearby Collingwood.

According to The Toronto Star, who reviewed the footage, Nyabuto began struggling in the deep end of the pool and could be heard calling for help before the video went silent and the 24-year-old had disappeared from view.

The livestream then continued for several hours in almost total silence before her body was discovered and Key Motel staff were informed of the incident and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were called to the scene, the report said.

A spokesperson for the OPP told the Star that investigators were aware of the video and that it was working to have it removed from social media. The Independent has approached the department and the motel for further comment.

Nyabuto was living in Toronto, where she moved after arriving in Canada from Kenya in 2018. She was previously a student at Peak Healthcare College in the city’s North York district before working as a careworker across Ontario.

“She worked with seniors right until the end,” a close friend, Alfonce Nyamwaya, told the Star. “She really had a passion for that.”

He added that Nyabuto had worked in Ontario carehomes throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and that she “was the breadwinner back home for her family. She’s been supporting them and it’s left a big gap”.

Her most recent job was at the Country Lane long-term care home in neary Owen Sound, Ontario.