Mom Screamed When 6-Year-Old Was Found Inside Barrel (Exclusive)

• Gracelynn Vick, 6, of Saucier, Miss., went outside to play on the farm where she lived with her mom on April 13  — and hours after she disappeared, she was found and pronounced dead
• Police, who have called her death a “tragic accident,” said Gracelynn died after she crawled inside a nearby barrel and got trapped inside
• Gracelynn’s death is the latest tragedy for mom Vicki Hutcherson, who has lost three children in about four years, a family member tells PEOPLE

Jackie Polk, the aunt of Gracelynn Vick  — a 6-year-old girl whose tragic death last month rocked her family and their Mississippi community — remembers her niece as an adventurous girl who loved being outside, especially on the farm in Saucier, where she lived with her mother, Vicki Hutcherson.

“Gracelynn was an exuberant child,” Polk, 55, tells PEOPLE. “I mean, full of energy, full of sass.”

“She just loved the outdoors,” adds her aunt. “You could give her sticks, mud and rocks and a tree to climb. And she was super happy.”

At approximately 12 p.m. local time on April 13, Gracelynn went outside to play in the front yard and then disappeared, according to the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities spent hours searching for Gracelyn before she was found at approximately 6 p.m. and pronounced dead.

Four days after Gracelynn’s death, Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley said that her death was a “tragic accident” and that while playing, she crawled inside a nearby barrel, closed the lid from inside and got trapped.

“There were absolutely no signs of foul play,” Haley at the news conference. Although her cause of death has yet to be announced, the sheriff said that due to the heat index on the day of her death, Madelynn “would have experienced a combination of heat stress and limited oxygen supply inside the barrel.”

“This effect would be similar to that of a child being stuck in a hot car during the summer,” he added.

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Polk, who lives 20 miles away in Hancock County, recalls getting a phone call from Hutcherson, 46, after the mom noticed her daughter had disappeared. “She could not find her,” Polk says. “She had been calling out to her and she had been searching.”

When she arrived at her sister’s farm, police and emergency responders were already present. “There were so many people everywhere,” she says. “I mean, I counted at least five search dogs.”

Polk says a Mississippi task force investigating officer was the one to find Gracelynn. “Vicky was next to the investigator,” Polk says. “When Gracie was found, she screamed and I ran to her. This all happened within seconds.”

Gracelynn’s death is the latest tragedy for Hutcherson, who has lost three children in about four years.

In July 2021, her son Larry Hart died at the age of 17. “They said he had a missing enzyme in his liver,” Polk says, sharing that her nephew used a feeding tube and never talked or walked, but “could recognize voices because we could see that based on his behavior and reaction.”

“[Gracelynn] loved her brother,” Polk says. “She would get on the bed when she was even a tiny baby…She would rather climb than walk, and she would climb all over his hospital bed and lay up there and go to sleep.”

In March 2024, Gracelynn’s sister Victoria, 13, was killed in a crash. “They loved each other very much,” Polk says of the sisters’ relationship. “There are tons of videos with them on vacation.”

Six months later, Hutcherson’s fiancé was diagnosed with a rare cancer and died. “Our family has been through mortal hell,” says Polk. “We have seen more of our family and extended family over the last four years than we have our entire lives because we’ve had so many funerals.”

Gracelynn’s funeral was held on April 21 and a candlelight vigil took place at Saucier Park the following day. The event was mounted by local nonprofit group the Kind Hearts Organization, which raised money to pay for Gracelynn’s funeral and burial. Extra funds will be used to place a memory bench and a tree that blooms pink flowers at Saucier Elementary, Gracelynn’s school.

Dannette Necaise, the group’s founder, tells PEOPLE that the organization first learned what happened to Gracelynn through social media while the girl was still missing. “I just kept telling others in the group, ‘We need to do something. I don’t know what, but we need to do something,’ ” Necaise says.

About 150 people attended the vigil, including family, community members and emergency responders who took part in the search, Necaise recalls. “We had a local pastor come out and speak to the crowd and pray over everyone,” she says, adding that it was moving to “see how many people that this small child had touched.”