Two LDS missionaries and a Guatemala man were missing and presumed dead after a boat in which they were riding with another American capsized on Lake Atitlan, authorities said Friday.
A spokesman for Guatemalan police in Panajachel, located on the northern shore of Lake Atitlan, about 40 miles northwest of Guatemala City, said the boat capsized Thursday."We still have not been able to find the bodies of the two Americans and a Guatemalan who drowned," the spokesman said.
The four men were returning from San Pedro La Laguna, an Indian village on the southern shore of the lake, to Panajachel, where the missionaries are based, when there suddenly arose a strong wind the Indians call "Chocomil," which has caused numerous similar incidents in the past.
Church spokesman Don LeFevre in Salt Lake City identified the two missing missionaries as Adam Leach, 19, Laguna Beach, Calif., and Brian Bartholomew, 20, Modesto, Calif. A third missionary, Erick Lee Caten, McMinnville, Tenn., managed to swim to shore.
LeFevre said the missionaries had arranged for the Guatemalan man to take them across the lake to pick up some documents necessary to prepare for a baptism. He said the families of the missing missionaries were notified Thursday of the accident.