Dehydration thought to be cause in FSU student’s deadly fall in Israel

The father of a Florida State University student who died when she fell while hiking in Israel says his daughter collapsed due to dehydration in the hot Middle Eastern sun.

Israeli media reports say 20-year-old Briana McHam plunged 26 feet to her death while hiking with two other classmates in the 104-degree Jerusalem heat on Tuesday.

“I feel that she probably became heat exhausted,” said Dr. James Pitts, director of International Programs at FSU. “There were a lot of people they were actually taking to the hospital that day because of heat exhaustion.”

That’s the story Lemonte McHam, Briana’s father, believes. However, there is no known cause of death. An autopsy has not yet been completed and it’s unknown when it will be available, Pitts said. Pitts added that there is no suspicion of foul play.

Briana was with a group of 15 students staying and studying at the Rabin Center in Jerusalem. The students arrived on May 5 and Briana would have returned with the rest of her classmates on June 10. During a hike on the Snake Path overlooking the Dead Sea in Israel’s Masada National Park, two students Briana was with decided to walk ahead to go to the bathroom, McHam said. When they came out of the bathroom and discovered McHam not there, they began looking for her. About an hour and a half later, McHam was found down at the bottom of an embankment.

McHam received the news on Tuesday, since then it’s been a roller coaster of emotions, he said.

“She had her whole life ahead of her, and she was just a very caring young woman,” McHam added. “I’m not frustrated. I’m saddened.”

The students were met by a team of counselors when they returned to the Rabin Center, Pitts said.

Briana’s body will be sent to Pompano Beach where Briana’s mother, Annette Blackwell, lives. McHam said the funeral will be in Pompano Beach but arrangements are still pending.

Until then, McHam, Briana’s family and friends will have to wait.

Briana McHam was an outgoing student who was set to graduate early with a degree in forensic science and a minor in psychology. She signed up for FSU’s International Program to see the world and collect more credits. McHam encouraged her to go and meet different people, an integral part of the college experience, he said.

“I’m not frustrated because she was doing something that she wanted to do,” McHam told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Briana was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and moved to Pompano Beach with her mom after elementary school and graduated from Pompano Beach High School in 2012, McHam said. Growing up she would spend summers in Winston Salem, North Carolina, where her dad lives, visiting with her step-brother Derrick Cooper, 17, and brother Kennedy McHam, 8.

Briana loved professional wrestling and going to the movies, McHam said. She wanted to work as a forensic scientist and was scheduled to begin an internship with the Winston Salem Police Department when she got back from Israel.

“You go through life and you never think you’ll be burying your child,” he said.

Briana McHam’s death is not the first for an FSU International Program student. At least two others have died while studying abroad.

On May 18, 2012, 19-year-old William Cullen Klein from Melbourne Beach lost his footing while on the roof of a dormitory building in Tianjin, China, and fell 14 stories to his death. George Turner Ashby, 20, died on June 14, 2006 at an apartment near the FSU campus in Panama City, Panama. Ashby reportedly bled to death after being stabbed at a party.