Dawn Brancheau had been working with some of the deadliest beasts of the deep for more than 15 years.
She had always had a huge love of animals and set her heart on becoming a trainer at Seaworld after visiting the attraction in Orlando, Florida when she was a child.
Dawn, who had achieved her goal of becoming a senior trainer at Seaworld at the time of her tragic death, had studied psychology and animal behaviours at university.
When she graduated, she spent two years working with dolphins at an attraction in New Jersey before landing her job at Seaworld.
But Dawn's love of animals spread outside of her work.
In her spare time she volunteered at an animal shelter, adored her two Labradors and had a collection of stray ducks, rabbits, chickens and birds at the home she shared with her husband, Scott.
Two years after Dawn started work at Seaworld, she became a killer whale trainer.
She made sure she was as fit and healthy as possible so she could manage to rigours of swimming with the huge beasts from the deep.
Dawn was one of the star trainers at Seaworld - she was key to the killer whale shows and her face was seen on billboards advertising the park.
Chillingly, four years before her tragic death, 10 years ago today, Dawn had spoken out about the dangers of working with orcas.
She had a special relationship with the huge killer whale, Tilikum, also known as Blackfish.
He was one of the largest orcas at SeaWorld and he had been in captivity for more than 30 years.
Those who worked with her said their bond was strong and based on love and trust.
John Hargrove, who was a senior trainer at Seaworld at the time of Dawn's death, said: "We’ll never know why Tilikum made that choice to grab Dawn and pull her into the pool.
"He had a great relationship with her, and she had a great relationship with him. I do believe that he loved her, and I know that she loved him."
It was after one of the Dine With Shamu shows that Tilikum carried out his brutal act.
Tourists could watch the action as they ate and Dawn had climbed out of the pool.
She was lying with her face next to Tilikum's - the orca she had spent countless hours with and who had always treated her as a trusted companion.
Suddenly, Dawn was dragged into the water. Initially it was claimed she had been pulled into the pool by her ponytail, but there were later suggestions Tilikum had grabbed her by her shoulder.
What came next was truly gruesome.
Tilikum didn't just kill his trainer, the attack was prolonged and incredibly violent.
Dawn, 40, was not only drowned, her left arm was torn from its socket, Dawn was scalped with her hair and skin found at the bottom of the pool.
Horrifically, her spinal cord was severed, while she also suffered from broken ribs, a broken jaw and a post-mortem revealed she died from both drowning and blunt force injury.
Chillingly, the captive whale killed his trainer and then refused to release her body.
For 45 minutes, he kept Dawn's broken body on the pool with him, despite attempts from the other trainers to distract him with nets and food.
Eventually, they managed to get him into a smaller, medical pool, where he was easier to calm and he finally released the body of the trainer who had spent so much time with him.
Dawn wasn't the first person the huge creature killed, and he was responsible for two deaths decades before.
In 1991 he was one of three whales involved in the death of Sealand trainer Keltie Byrne.
She was pulled to the bottom of the enclosure after falling into the pool and drowned. It took Kaltie's colleagues two hours to recover her body.
Shortly after her death Sealand closed and put Tilikum up for sale.
He was bought by SeaWorld, but tragedy struck again in 1999 when he fatally attacked Daniel P. Dukes, who was trespassing at the park.
Following Dawn's death, Tilikum was sent to spend most of his days in a pool rarely seen by the public.
There are reports that he would spend hours on end just lying on the surface of the water.
Tilikum died at the Florida attraction in January 2017.
Six years after Dawn's death SeaWorld announced they would end their programme of breeding the orcas in captivity.
Instead the attraction now works with the Humane Society of the United States to work against commercial whaling and seal hunts.
SeaWorld also campaigns against shark finning and ocean pollution and has switched its focus to rescue operations.
Tilikum and Dawn's death were also the inspiration behind the documentary film, Blackfish.
It looked at Tilikum's life since he was captured in 1983 off the coast of Iceland.
The huge orca was linked to the deaths of two other people as well as Dawn.
