It's always terrible news to hear of a fellow diver's death under circumstances that could have been prevented.

I agree that we don't know enough about the story to make an informed choice as to what went wrong and know that if we were involved in a similar predicament to know what actions to take to rectify the situation.

The one part of the story that I didn't understand was her friend (i'm assuming he was also her buddy?) tried to help her drop her weights - which to me, seems the most obvious thing to do, especially if she was complaining she had too much weight - but then she paniced? That doesn't make sense.

As she was complaining of too much weight before entering the water, shouldn't/wouldn't another diver/DM/Instructor talk to her about the weight and make sure she had enough to maintain neutral buoyancy?

If she was diving in < 30ft of water (I know Amtrosie mentioned max depth of 40ft), she would have been within the limits to do a CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent)???