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Death in the Peace Corps, 1962-2003

Bright lights peace extinguishedof

‘Daddy, when I come home I would like to staywith you and maybe we could go on our ownlittle vacation, out West . . . I’m counting on it.’

— SUSAN FAGAN, Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, West Africa, 1999.Fagan died of malaria in Ohio, shortly after leaving the Peace Corps.

For more information onvolunteers who died whileserving in the Peace Corps, go towww.DaytonDailyNews.com.

Their mission is to spread peace byliving and working in thedeveloping world.

But ever since President JohnF. Kennedy sent the first volunteersaround the world more than 40 years ago,the cause of peace has had a tragicside-effect.

Since 1961, about 170,000 volunteershave served in the Peace Corps, and 250have died, about one every other month.

The largest number, nearly 100, died inmotor vehicle crashes.

Others were stricken with heart orasthma attacks, strokes or illnesses suchas malaria and even rabies.

One was gunned down by a sniper,another trampled by an elephant.

Twenty-eight reportedly drowned.At least 20 were murdered, and nearly

as many took their own lives.Alcohol was linked to dozens of deaths

— one of every six.Some deaths have never been

explained, remaining mysteries to thisday. In other deaths, families were givenlittle information or weren’t told the truth.

Although the volunteers died frommyriad causes, more than 180 of them hada common link. Each was younger than30.

Part of the legacy of the Peace Corps isthe volunteer who never made it home.Some of those stories are told below.

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1960sDavid Crozier and Lawrence Radley

Crozier and Radley become the first PeaceCorps volunteers to die in service when a DC-3crashes into a mountain in Colombia on April 22,1962. Their bodies are never found.

Paul Bond, Gerald Flynn and Troy Ross

Three volunteers on vacation in Peru areamong 49 killed when a commercial airlinercrashes on April 27, 1966.

Lowell DunnDunn is playing cards with two volunteers in

Thailand on Aug. 23, 1966, when a short-circuit inthe hotel wiring causes the lights to go out. He iselectrocuted when he flips the light switch.

Marcia and Dennis PearsonTwo married volunteers on a skiing trip in Tur-

key become lost in a blizzard for four days. Bythe time a search team finds them on Jan. 31,1967, it is too late. The search team thenbecomes lost and has to be rescued by villagers.

William ReiserOhio State University graduate dies on Feb. 10,

1967, when the Jeep he is riding in overturnsnear Kibi, Ghana. Two other volunteers escapeinjury.

William AckermanWhile still in training, 23-year-old volunteer

dies Nov. 27, 1968, in Colombia from an overdoseof sedatives. Phone call to his father five daysbefore reveals Ackerman was depressed abouthis job site and other matters. The Peace Corpscalls his death a suicide.

——————————————

1970sMarie Clutterbuck and Gail Gross

Clutterbuck and Gross are among an estimated30,000 dead in May 31, 1970, earthquake in Peru.The volunteers are in their apartment buildingwhen the walls collapse. Their bodies are foundfour days later.

David BogenschneiderVolunteer in Kenya has been missing for

three weeks when his body is washed ashore inthe Indian Ocean on Oct. 20, 1970. He had beenon vacation with two other volunteers, butparted ways and went out on his own. “We don’tknow if he drowned or if there was some foulplay involved,” said his brother Larry. The PeaceCorps rules his death an accidental drowning.

Agatha ThorntonVolunteer dies in Liberia on March 22, 1971,

five hours after slipping into a malaria-inducedcoma. Religious reasons are cited for decliningmedical treatment.

Alan BannerVolunteer dies in Samoa while swimming in

the ocean on April 16, 1972. Another volunteerreports seeing a shark attack Banner. Body isnever found.

Stephen HamerVolunteer in Malaysia is hit by a car while

riding on the handlebars of a motorcycle onOct. 23, 1975. The death is the second involvingmotorcycles in three months.

Louise Wolf and Polly ZimmermanTwo volunteers sharing an apartment in

Morocco inhale fumes from an unventilated gasheater on Oct. 22, 1976. One body is found in bed,the other in the bathtub.

Christine ThompsonTwenty-seven-year-old volunteer is stricken in

Ecuador and dies in a Miami hospital on Aug. 6,1978. Family is told volunteer had stroke but findsout later she had attempted suicide earlier andused psychedelic mushrooms. “She ate the mush-rooms and that’s what probably killed her,” hermother said.

——————————————

1980sLynne Masover

Thirty-four-year-old volunteer becomessick with flu-like symptoms for six days. PeaceCorps medical office prescribes bed rest. OnMay 19, 1980, Masover becomes severely illand dies before seeing a doctor.

Shaun O’BrienVolunteer and two other bicyclists are hit

head-on by a Jeep in the Philippines on Jan.22, 1984. The driver takes two to the hospital,but O’Brien has to wait for another driver totransport him. He dies nine hours after theaccident. He becomes the third volunteer to

die in the Philippines in three years, and afourth would die nine months later.

Jennifer RubinTwenty-three-year-old in Togo is the only

volunteer in a village of 500 when she isstabbed to death in her home on June 12, 1984.The daughter of her landlord is charged witharranging for two men from a neighboring vil-lage to kill her. All three received life in prison.

Peter WolfeVolunteer is shot in the head and killed Oct.

28, 1984, in an apparent robbery attempt inGuatemala.

Matthew ShermanMinster, Ohio, volunteer dies on Sept. 8,

1988, after night watchman at the PeaceCorps training site in Honduras mistakes himfor an intruder in an area of heavy crime andguerrilla activity.

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1990sWilliam Nordmann

Twenty-four-year-old volunteer is one of113 fatalities when A310 commercial planecrashes into a mountain in Nepal during aheavy rainstorm on July 31, 1992.

Lucille RaimondoVolunteer dies May 22, 1995, after going

for a hike during rainy season in Guatemala.Peace Corps rules accidental fall from a cliff,

but family is skeptical. “It was a dangerousplace, “ said Lucinda Edwards, the 22-year-oldvolunteer’s sister. “ If a situation like that hap-pened in Boston I wouldn’t believe it.”

Jeremy RolfsRolfs becomes the second Peace Corps vol-

unteer to die in four days when the 27-year-old telecommunications adviser’s car is hithead-on March 31, 1997, in South Africa. Thedriver in the other car apparently fell asleep.Five days later, the body of Elizabeth Living-ston was found more than a week after shewent for a hike in Costa Rica.

Joie KallisonTaxi carrying six people blows a tire and

rolls over in Namibia on March 13, 1998, killing23-year-old volunteer. Driver pleads guilty tonegligence but serves no jail time. Kallison issecond volunteer to die in traffic fatality in theAfrican country in a little more than a year.

Robert BockVolunteer is last of 10 people shot and the

only American killed in the Philippines by agang that targets people at random. Amongthe dead: four electric company workersresponding to power outage. Bock is shot onAug. 12, 1998, as he returns from librarywhere he was researching pig farming.

Helene HillFifty-seven-year-old volunteer in Namibia

dies on Jan. 10, 1999, three weeks after hercancer is detected in a South Africa hospital.“It’s very sad,” the hospital’s general physiciansaid about her case. “Eventually she wanted togo back to the U.S., but she was too ill.”

——————————————

2000-2003Jennifer Rose

Volunteer is returning from a South Africanvacation when the Land Rover she is in flipsover in Namibia on Dec. 30, 2000. A friend in anearby car stops at a farmhouse and calls theU.S. embassy, which dispatches a rescue plane.Rose dies before the plane lands.

Natalie WaldingerVolunteer, 24, and a friend leave their car to

photograph an elephant in a game park in theTanzanian interior on Jan. 7, 2001, when theclicks from their cameras apparently enragethe animal. He charges and tramples Waldingerto death as her friend scrambles to safety.

Larisa JaffeSixty-three-year-old volunteer is murdered

in her home in Mutare, Zimbabwe, on Oct. 7,2001. The body is found, days later, under thehome’s floor boards. A 17-year-old is chargedand found guilty of killing her.

Elizabeth BowersEarlham College graduate dies March 6,

2002, from injuries in a fall from a bicycle inZambia. Local residents take her to Catholicpriest, who brings her to a local clinic. She isthen transported to a hospital in Pretoria,where she has surgery to relieve swelling onher brain. She dies of a brain infection fourdays later.

Zachary MerrillVolunteer in Mali takes his own life on July

7, 2003.

Source: Peace Corps Death in Service data-base, Dayton Daily News research.

1. Chad Nettesheim, 25, of Waukesha, Wis., Aug. 6, 1997, DominicanRepublic. Heart attack, possibly asthma-related. 2. Gloey Wiseman, 46,of Arvada, Colo., Oct. 13, 1991, Bolivia. Murder. 3. Joseph Teates, 26,of Winchester, Va., June 14, 1987, Guatemala. Ruled accidental; possi-ble suicide or homicide. 4. Larisa Jaffe, 63, of Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct.7, 2001, Zimbabwe. Murder. 5. Etienne ‘Victor’ Verloo, 64, of Sacra-mento, Calif., Sept. 14, 1998, Ukraine. Murder. 6. David Crozier of WestPlains, Mo., and Lawrence Radley of Chicago, both 22, April 22, 1962,Colombia. Plane crash. 7. Wyatt Pillsbury, 23, of Waterville, Maine, July11, 2001, Tanzania. Drug overdose. 8. Elizabeth Livingston, 48, ofTaos, New Mexico, March 28, 1997, Costa Rica. Hiking accident most likely cause. 9. Susan Fagan, 39, ofNegley, Ohio, Nov. 30, 2001, Ghana. Malaria. 10. Nancy Coutu, 29, of Hudson, N.H., April 9, 1996, Mada-gascar. Murder. 11. Kevin Leveille, 26, of Ventura, Calif., Feb. 5, 1998, Ivory Coast. Murder. 12. JenniferRose, 24, of Glenview, Ill., Dec. 30, 2000, Namibia. Car crash. 13. Denise Blake, 24, of Greencastle, Pa.,May 31, 1974, Afghanistan. Presumed drowning. 14. Bethanne Bahler, 24, of Wabash, Ind., May 11, 1974,Jamaica. Presumed drowning. 15. Karen Phillips, 37, of Windber, Pa., Dec. 17, 1998, Gabon. Murder. 16. Matthew Sherman, 22, Minster, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1988, Honduras. Shooting death.

8 l DAYTON DAILY NEWS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2003 l 9

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