![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/HUGO-AND-ERWAN-AT-BEACH.png\")
\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/hugo-and-tania-at-airport.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWHEN Tania MacNabb hugged her son goodbye at the airport as he headed off backpacking, she didn\u2019t realise it would be the last hug they ever shared.<\/p>\n
Her son, Hugo Palmer, 20, had been saving for months to go on an adventure of a lifetime to Australia with four of his friends.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
But their travels ended in tragedy after Hugo and his best friend, Erwan Ferrieux, vanished three months into the trip and never returned.<\/p>\n
Their belongings were found on a beach in New South Wales, leading police to believe they had drowned after being dragged underwater by dangerous riptides \u2013 well known by locals, but not by tourists.<\/p>\n
Tragically, Hugo\u2019s body was never recovered, and Tania and her family were only able to hold a proper funeral with a single bone that had been recovered \u2013 which was discovered after having been gnawed by a shark.<\/p>\n
And the mystery deepened when cops confirmed Hugo was dead before his body was likely eaten by a shark – leaving his family with few clues on his cause of death. <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/newspress-collage-23822561-1693981156844.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/three-united-states-military-personnel-840537043.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
His heartbroken mum Tania has bravely decided to speak out to warn thousands of teens about to set off on gap year adventures.<\/p>\n
She claims the beach Hugo died at lured in tourists without properly warning them of the dangers.<\/p>\n
Speaking from her home in Forest Row, Sussex, Tania said: "He was so excited for his life to begin, he wanted to go and have this huge adventure \u2013 and it was all snatched away from him.<\/p>\n
"The last phonecall I had with him, I lectured him about driving safely \u2013 I wish I had known instead to warn him about this."<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Riptides can flow at up to 5mph \u2013 faster than an Olympic swimmer \u2013 dragging even the most experienced swimmers away from the shoreline and leaving them exhausted.<\/p>\n Tania has since discovered the beach is notorious for strong rip tides, and locals are well aware of the dangers.<\/p>\n But the beach is unpatrolled, and invites tourists with a host of barbecuing facilities and beach huts for changing.<\/p>\n Hugo had been backpacking with five school friends around Australia for three months when he managed to save up enough money to buy a car and travel across Australia, stopping at Shelly Beach, just north of Sydney, NSW.<\/p>\n The boys had driven out to the beach, but the alarm was only raised the following morning when locals found their belongings still lying on a beach towel.<\/p>\n When Hugo\u2019s belongings were returned to his family, heart-breakingly, the page of his Lonely Planet travel guide was turned down at Shelly Beach.<\/p>\n Tania recalled: "We flew straight out to Australia, and when we were there, so many locals told us they are always pulling tourists from the sea there.<\/p>\n "It was like a scene from Jaws \u2013 everyone was enjoying the beach but there was this huge secret that they were hiding about the water.<\/p>\n \u201cLocals told us it\u2019s notoriously dangerous, but apart from a note at the entrance along with the beach rules, there is nothing that highlights the danger.<\/p>\n \u201cOne man told me that he voluntarily patrols the beach on a Sunday to warn tourists about the water, but he wasn\u2019t able to get to the beach the day Hugo died. He was devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n The search for the boys was called off after a week, and Tania was forced to return home.<\/p>\n "Leaving Australia without Hugo was the hardest thing I have ever had to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how they got me on the plane."<\/p>\n The Australian coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure \u2013 and believes it was likely that Hugo drowned.<\/p>\n Two years after the boys vanished, human remains were discovered in the sea by spear fishermen that was later identified as Hugo\u2019s thighbone.<\/p>\n Chillingly, forensics teams confirmed there was a carnivorous bite on Hugo\u2019s thigh bone \u2013 probably inflicted by a shark, although it\u2019s not believed he was alive when this happened.<\/p>\n Erwan's bones washed up at the southern end of Flynn's Beach – a couple of miles down the coast from where they vanished.<\/p>\n "All we had was one femur bone," Tania said. <\/p>\n "The funeral felt bizarre, I didn\u2019t really feel anything. It is so hard being so far away from where he is and not knowing what happened in his final moments.<\/p>\n "Did they both go and swim together, or did one of them get into trouble and the other one try to rescue them? I will play the possibilities over in my head forever.<\/p>\n "If I lived nearby, I would be fighting tooth and nail for increased warnings at the beach in Hugo\u2019s name \u2013 but it\u2019s hard to do from the other side of the world.<\/p>\n "I wish I could go back to the airport and hug him just a little bit longer.<\/p>\n "Hugo was a really sensible and cautious lad, if he had understood how dangerous that beach was there is no way he would have gone into the water.<\/p>\n "If his death can help save someone else by warning them of the dangers, then I think that would be what he would have wanted."<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/TM-comp-Khalife-arrested-v2.jpg\")
<\/picture>GOT HIM <\/span><\/p>\n‘Terrorist’ Daniel Khalife ‘laughed and winked’ after being arrested by armed cops<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/AP-FUGATIVE-9-SEPT_COMP.jpg\")
<\/picture>ON THE RUN <\/span><\/p>\nHow \u2018terrorist\u2019 led cops on wild goose chase in 4 days with survival pack & bike<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/newspress-collage-23884346-1694265545341.jpg\")
<\/picture>CROWN AXED <\/span><\/p>\nSchumacher update as pal says stricken legend should be STRIPPED of F1 title<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/VP-COMP-KHALIFE-v2.jpg\")
<\/picture>FUGITIVE SNARED <\/span><\/p>\nMoment cops arrest escaped \u2018terrorist\u2019 with bike 4 days after jailbreak<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-2.webp\")
<\/p>\nRead More on The Sun<\/span><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/RW-GRAPHIC-oral-healthv2-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSigns of diseases hidden INSIDE your mouth – from cancer to HIV & how to check<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/newspress-collage-23883955-1694261777118.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHelen Flanagan holiday-shamed after sharing unseen pics fromGreek trip with kids<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Hugo-and-Erwan-in-australia-1.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/hugo-travelling.jpg\")