An actress who appeared in Home And Away has died after being involved in a crash that killed several members of her family.
Jessica Falkholt, 29, played Hope Morrison in the long-running soap and was considered to be a rising star in her native Australia.
Her life support was switched off last Friday and Falkholt died at 10.20am on Wednesday, a statement from St George’s Hospital in Sydney said.
A spokeswoman said: “Jessica passed away from serious injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident on 26 December, 2017.
“The family has asked for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Channel Seven, the Australian broadcaster that produces the show, said the cast are “heartbroken” to learn of her death.
“Jessica’s shining talent was recognised and respected by all her cast mates and crew and her beautiful friendship treasured,” a spokesman added.
“We send our sincere condolences to her extended family and friends during this difficult time.”
Falkholt’s parents Lars and Vivian were also killed in a head-on crash – while her sister Annabelle was critically injured and died three days later in hospital.
The soap’s stars paid tribute to her, with Brody Morgan actor Jackson Heywood saying her “beautiful soul will be so deeply missed”.
Falkholt’s agent Lisa Mann said the news was “heart breaking”, adding: “Beautiful Jess was loved and treasured by her family, friends and colleagues and our sympathies are with everyone today.”
Emergency services were called to Princes Highway at Mondayong on 10.45am on December 26 with three people pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the other car, Craig Whitall, also died.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here