The mother of 15-year-old Olivia Campbell has confirmed her daughter died in the Manchester bombing despite emotional pleas to the press hoping someone had seen her.
Charlotte Campbell took to Facebook to pay tribute to her “darling precious gorgeous girl” after frantically searching for her on Tuesday, hoping she was one of the victims lying in hospital injured by the attacks.
During an earlier emotional plea, Ms Campbell said the friend Olivia had gone to the concert with was receiving treatment in hospital.
“I last had contact with her at half past eight last night,” she told the BBC.
“She was at the concert, she’d just seen the support act and said she was having an amazing time and thanking me for letting her go.”
Kelly Brewster, 32, was also at the Ariana Grande concert with her sister, Claire, and her niece, Hollie Booth when a suicide bomber detonated a homemade bomb.
Ms Brewster reportedly “shielded” her niece from the explosion and was then separated from the pair.
While the family hoped she was injured and unconscious in hospital, news came at 10:30pm that she had passed away – just a day after putting a deposit on a house with her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend, Ian John Winslow, wrote on Facebook that “Kelly really was the happiest she has ever been and we had so many things planned together.”
Tracy Booth posted on Facebook that her granddaughter Hollie had broken both of her legs and her mother had a broken jaw.
“I just hope my granddaughter Hollie Booth, her mum and Kelly Brewster will be ok, I hope my Hollies legs r going to be ok (sic),” she wrote.
Paul Dryhurst commented on the post explaining that, “she [Kelly] was behind Hollie and shield her with her body (sic).”
It’s also since surfaced that Ariana Grande’s mum, Joan Grande, kept several concertgoers safe by taking them backstage after the bomb exploded.
TMZ reported that Joan was still sitting in the front row when the bomb went off and gathered a group of kids to come backstage with her as people started fleeing for the exits.
Joan and some of Ariana’s security stayed with the young children until they were able to safely exit the arena.
The 23-year-old singer has returned to her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida and is taking an indefinite break after the horrific incident on Monday.