Overview
- At Pontypridd Coroner’s Court on November 14, 2025, Coroner Kerrie Burge concluded on the balance of probabilities that the death resulted from accidental drowning, with the medical cause recorded as submersion in water.
- Holli Smallman was paddling with friends on August 9, 2024, when she slipped near a weir in the River Severn during a period of faster‑moving water.
- Friends attempted to grab her after she went under but she did not resurface, prompting an emergency response and search.
- She was found just over three hours later and was pronounced deceased at Severn Banks in Welshpool that evening.
- Her family issued tributes and urged caution around open water, as reporting placed the case within 2024 data showing 193 accidental water‑related fatalities in the UK, 61% in inland waterways, including 54 fatalities in Wales.