COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A strong undertow in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica swept a group of Ohio high school students out to sea while they took a beach break during a religious mission trip, killing two of them and leaving a third missing.
The current pulled them away from shore Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from their school, Patriot Preparatory Academy in Columbus. They were among eight juniors and seniors taking a service trip not sponsored by the school and were to return home Thursday.
Two other students also were swept away by the rip current near the town of Parrita but were rescued by lifeguards, The Tico Times newspaper in Costa Rica reported.
The first body recovered was that of Caity Jones. James Smith's body was recovered Thursday, and authorities were still searching for Kai Lamar, said Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the Costa Rican Red Cross. All three were juniors.
The students had been taking Wednesday, their final day in Costa Rica, as a free day. The three swept away were described as active in school and the community, well-liked and good students.
The mission was organized by Ohio-based Impulse International Mission Trips. The students were working at an orphanage and a drug rehabilitation center, among other places, according to a post by Lamar on a blog the group is keeping on the trip.
The visit to the orphanage "was one of the most touching things I had ever seen," he wrote in the post, dated April 28-29. "I became attached to one child in particular, and I learned much of how that place worked. ... I even shed a few tears as we left."
Members of The Redeemer's on Courtright Church in Columbus, which Smith's family attends, had been praying for good news, said associate pastor Rick Kulich.
"It's a great loss for our church," he said. "It's a great loss for the Body of Christ because this kid was going to go somewhere. It's just sad."
He described Smith as a "brainiac" who looked younger than his 16 years.
"He wanted to be a servant in the sense of working with the youth pastor and the youth leaders, just a good-hearted kid," Kulich said.
The boy's father and the church's pastor, Dwight Bennett, were trying to make their way to Costa Rica together on Thursday, the associate pastor said.
Jones "was just a marvelous person, very outgoing," said Paul Blythe, a friend of the Jones family and a school board member whose children graduated from the school.
The K-12 school, on the city's east side, is a former private Christian school that converted this year to a charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but privately run. It has about 500 students.
"Thanks for Spreading Our Wings and Teaching Us to Fly," said a motivational poster at the school on Thursday.
Students had made the same volunteer trip to Costa Rica in the past when the school was private, Blythe said.
They did fundraising and obtained sponsors to pay for the trip, he said. Fellow board member Joseph Branch said the students were volunteering at orphanages and working with children whose parents had substance abuse problems.
Branch said the students embodied the school's spirit of academics combined with community service.
"It's been really tough for the faculty and the staff there at the school and for the families to know that they were there doing some good things and then this happened," Branch said Thursday.
Counselors were at the school all day, Branch said.
"Our hearts go out to all of our Patriot family that has been affected by this tragedy," the academy said in a statement. "We are a family, and when one hurts we all hurt."
Messages were left for Impulse International. The group posted a message on its website saying, "We are in deep sorrow," and asking for prayer for those touched by the students' deaths.
In 2006, three Kansas students and their teacher drowned in Costa Rica while on a Spanish language immersion trip. A group of students were swimming and some were swept away by strong currents. At least two were rescued, but the teacher and one of the students died trying to save the others.
---
Associated Press writers Andrew Welsh-Huggins and JoAnne Viviano in Columbus and Marianela Jimenez in San Jose, Costa Rica, contributed to this report.
---
© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
