Tlo wrote:Hey all,
The girl in this article is my beloved sister, I've come searching on the internet for answers on the cause of her death. Currently I'm in nepal and have very little access to internet and contact with my family, other than a Facebook call from my father informing me of her death. If anyone can help or was in the area at the time I'd feel better knowing what happened to her ('drowning' doesn't suffice knowing her excellent swimming ability).

Also in response to one presumptuous individual: no she does not come from a rich family, she lived in toorak with some friends over 2 years ago- in fact our family struggles financially, she saved up for this trip herself working in hospitality.

Thanks to those for your kind words, the family found out only a few hours after the discovery of her body, we are truly devastated

I love you kristy

Condolences to all of you.

While she might be a great swimmer, don't forget she was likely swimming in the dark, in a river with a current, and presumably quite intoxicated (nobody comes to party in Kampot and only drink a couple beers).

Hopefully more details will emerge soon, but I wouldn't jump to "foul play" too soon.

Fuckyou wrote:This is my best friend. I think we can take the photos down now she was a very loved little angel that fought for things like protecting the ocean and animal rights. We dont have rich families we worked our butts off to get to toorak. Ive never met a more beautiful human in my life. She brought a smile to everyones face, everyday. If it is not too much trouble please sheild these images from the online community, we worked so hard to get to asia. I think im still in shock.

Condolences as well.

Thanks for clarifying that. Please remember we try very hard to have balance when we report these tragedies, even blurring the images from the local press.

It's a hard balance because some friends and family members want to gather as much info about the incident as possible, including images which might help clarify things, especially in a country known for less than acceptable forensics and reporting, while others want no reporting on it at all.

Please keep in mind that even her brother is questioning what caused her death on here, and it would be counter-productive to want to know as much as possible, yet have no interest in the images from the scene.

Also, before you condemn us for these images, remember that mainstream Western media is beginning to show a lot more images of deceased people (including children) these days, often with nothing more than a warning saying "Warning: This article contains distressing images depicting death" and we even go further than that by blurring the images and hiding them behind a spoiler so that you can't even see them unless you agree to see them and take another step to open the spoiler.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 43691.html

Let's hope we get some solid answers and that no foul play was involved.

And just so you know, Arcadia Backpackers Hostel in Kampot is known for being a wild backpackers place where travellers on the cheap come to party on the river pretty hard.

They were in the news almost exactly a year ago to date when a 25 year old British man working at Arcadia was accused of raping another 22 year old British female traveler.

If I remember correctly, her drunken traveling companions convinced her that she wasn't in fact raped, but was just so drunk that she had mistakenly thought she was raped (or something like that, but it's a drunken backpackers haven).

https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/newswor ... t6122.html

And just so everyone knows, getting weed or whatever else in Kampot isn't too hard. Again, the place is a backpackers' party haven.

On Kristy Blackney's public Facebook page she often talks about how drunk she's gotten, even blacking out and not remembering who she's called/texted, and even talks openly about smoking marijuana on the international "Weed Day" (called "420," held on April 20 every year).

So if someone is high and drunk, not sure if it matters much how well they can swim if they're in a dark river with a current.

Getting drunk and passing out on land.... the end of your good reputation
Getting drunk and passing out while swimming... the end of you

One of Kristy's friends has set up a GoFundMe account for the Blackney family to cover the expenses of her body being flown back to Australia.

One more reason to have travel insurance.



"As you may have heard our beautiful girl Kristy Blackney has passed away while traveling in Cambodia. Her family and friends are devastated and completely heartbroken. As you can imagine the cost to bring Kristy home are great as well as the costs of a funeral. So if you are able to help her family with these expenses in anyway please do. We love you Kristy and will miss you so much."

Kristy Blackney's GoFundMe account has already raised $11,510 in 6 hours towards a goal of $15,000. With 232 donors, that's an average donation of just under $50 each.

Over $11,000 in 6 hours has to be a record for any Cambodia-related GoFundMe crowdfunding that we've seen.