Lincoln County Emergency Management officials said that the father of one of the children had called 911 on Sunday evening around 6:00 p.m.
The Charlotte Observer says that Jordan Crawford viewed the children in the construction site pit when the dirt collapsed on top of them. The trapped kids found dead were a six-year-old girl and a seven-year old boy. They were said to be cousins.
Emergency crews were on the scene within minutes, but they still couldn't get to the children as they didn't know how far down they were. Eventually, it was realized that they were about 20 feet down in the dirt and below a new home that was under construction.
Neighbors confirmed that the hole was very deep as they had seen a man building the home and digging with a backhoe earlier in the day.
The trapped kids found dead were eventually found under 24 feet of dirt.