A two-day search for a 16-year-old exchange student came to a tragic end in the early evening of Friday, June 10, when RCMP divers recovered the boy’s body in Malibu Rapids, at the entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet.
The teen, a South Korean citizen who had been attending school in Idaho, was staying at Malibu Club, a camp run by Young Life, with 14 other members of his church group when he fell into the water near the rapids about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
Sunshine Coast RCMP spokesman Const. Harrison Mohr said the RCMP’s underwater recovery team, working with West Coast Marine Services, found the body Friday using a remotely operated underwater vehicle equipped with sonar.
“After making the discovery with sonar, the team had to wait for slack tide at the narrows before recovering the body late in the day,” Mohr said in a release late Friday, adding that the BC Coroners Service was on the scene.
“This is a very sad outcome to this search,” Mohr said. “Our hearts go out to this young man’s family, friends, and fellow campers. This is the news no one was wanting to hear. At the same time, we truly hope that this will help his family to find some closure and to move a little bit closer to having peace in their lives again.”
According to a CBC News report posted Friday, the victim’s 27-year-old cousin, a South Korean student living in Vancouver, said the teen was playing volleyball near a cliff when the accident occurred. He said his cousin fell past a safety net into the water while trying to catch the ball.
Mohr described the search as “complex” and “made especially challenging by the isolated location and changing conditions.”
In a June 14 email to Coast Reporter, Young Life vice president of communications Terry Swenson explained the organization’s response to the incident.
“From the moment our staff became aware that the young man had entered and was in distress in a restricted (off limits to all camp guests) waterway, we initiated a search and rescue operation,” Swenson said.
“Camp personnel immediately launched a search and also requested assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Coast Guard. We also initiated the process of notifying the family and of providing professional counselling services to campers and others impacted. All waterfront activities were cancelled for the remaining two days of the camp week.”
Staff and counsellors decided to keep campers on site until the scheduled departure date of Friday, June 10, while the search for the teen was ongoing, Swenson said.
When asked if extra safety precautions have now been taken near the volleyball courts where the teen allegedly fell into the water, Swenson replied, “The entire Young Life family is deeply saddened by the accident, and ongoing commitment to the safety of campers remains one of our highest priorities.”
Young Life camps continue this week at Malibu Club and are expected to go forward as scheduled this summer.
