Days after a U.S. Marine from Massachusetts was swept from a beach in Puerto Rico, the search for him has changed, with local authorities saying that the active search for him was ending as of Monday.
Cpl. Samuel Maturi Wanjiru, 26, was at La Pared beach in Luquillo, on Puerto Rico's north-facing shore, on Wednesday with his partner when he was apparently sucked in by a current. For the next four days, a massive search was launched involving different coastal municipalities as well as rescue volunteers, including surfers who know the area.
But on Sunday, Nino Correa Filomeno, the commissioner of the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration, on the island announced that, starting Monday, the search for Wanjiru would transition to a passive phase, in which all coastal municipalities near Luquillo would still pay attention to their coasts.
"Thank you to all the staff who were working hard to find this young man," Correa Filomeno said in a statement posted on social media.
More on the search for Samuel Wanjiru from La Pared beach in Luquillo, Puerto Rico
Jesús Márquez, mayor of the Municipality of Luquillo, told NBC10 Boston Monday that, at the local level, the municipality would continue to use its resources to find the body of the young Marine, who was with his girlfriend on vacation and was expected to get engaged soon.
“In Luquillo, we are going to be putting our resources, and we will continue to pay attention to the coast, looking for that person who wanted to spend pleasant moments of their life in our town, and that is very important for us. At the local level, we will be continuing the search as well as supporting our volunteers in the hope that we find him,” Márquez said.
In particular, Márquez highlighted the work of the surfers who work as volunteers in the area and who have "great commitment to everything that happens in the area, from environmental protection to tourists who do not know the place."
“And especially if these people do not know the area and are not experts, they do not know where the currents are… of the thousands of people who can spend a weekend (on the beach) they can intervene with approximately 10 people. They are extremely committed,” he said.
Wanjiru's disappearance was not the only water incident last week, in which thousands of tourists crowded the island of Puerto Rico.
In fact, Correa Filomeno reported, similar incidents around the coast with several swimmers and warned that the beaches around the Island would have unsafe conditions until the middle of this week.
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