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Heartbroken family shares final videos of them enjoying a trip before five-year-old son died in floods

Jayden El Jer had just turned five in March and his parents, Joseph El Jer and Pam Hadchity, shared a picture of him grinning with cake on his face

TULLAMORE, NEW SOUTH WALES: The last heartbreaking post of a couple who lost their five-year-old son after their vehicle got swept away in floods in Tullamore, shows the happy family enjoying their time while riding back home through partly flooded roads.

Joseph El Jer and Pam Hadchity, Jayden's, shared a video of the family on their road trip from Granville, Sydney, to Tullamore in Central NSW. The family was heading to the west from their trip at Dubbo Zoo, when their Hilux got swept away in raging floodwaters on Friday, September 23 around 8 pm.

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Police claimed that the emergency services rescued four people, a 37-year-old man, and a 28-year-old woman, along with a young boy and girl from a submerged Toyota Hilux, but failed to save their five-year-old son who could not get out of the vehicle. Photos show the family, in lifejackets, being lifted from the rescue boat.

The four family members were rushed to the local Dubbo hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while the emergency services waited for the vehicle to arrive in the safe range. As soon as the vehicle came into their range, they rescued Jayden and took him to the same Dubbo hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The last video on the TikTok page of the couple, captured the three children enjoying at the zoo. The photos on the page also showed Jayden, who turned five just in March, with birthday cake all over his face, grinning.

"You make me proud, glad, happy and I will always be your biggest fan love you so much," Hadchity captioned the photos. El Jer wrote that Jayden was a "blessing from the heavens." "You changed me into a father, something I only dreamt of. Now you and your siblings have made me complete," he said.

Many Tullamore community members knew the El Jer family personally, as they used to visit the place several times a year. 'It's absolutely devastating, things like this just don't happen out here and everyone is just absolutely devastated for the family, everyone that went out there," neighbor Adriana Stevenson told the Daily Telegraph.

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident was underway and a report will be prepared for the coroner. As there was heavy rainfall reported from NSW and Australia's north coast on Friday, forecasters canceled a severe weather warning as the low-pressure system began to move offshore. “This is an evolving situation and the Bureau of Meteorology is monitoring rainfall and river heights closely,” the BoM said in a statement on Friday.

According to the The Daily Mail, first responders to the devastating situation were "looking after each other" while engaging in flood rescues, as per SES chief commander Rob Cunneen. In just 24 hours, SES volunteers conducted six floodwater rescues. They also responded to 112 calls for help.