Merrill Beck's love for the people of South Africa led to his death.
Beck, 59, developed that love during several trips to deliver food and clothing to needy South Africans. Family members of the former Lehi resident say Beck was shot to death in South Africa last month.Now, Beck's family is trying to find out what happened and hoping to get his body back to be buried in the Utah County town where he was raised.
"We don't have a clue who found him," said Karen Beck, Merrill's niece. "We don't know who identified him."
Beck left his home in Hawaii Feb. 5 on his humanitarian trip. He had been to South Africa several times before, family members say.
Nine days after he left Hawaii, a woman called Beck's brother, Jerry, who lives in Lehi, to say she had found Merrill Beck's passport in a trash can in South Africa.
Jerry Beck and his son, Blake, immediately began trying to contact Merrill.
Merrill Beck had been working in a small town called Soekmekaar, near where his passport was found.
"The area is very poor, very few phones, very little communication," said Michael Beck, a brother. "Things are just real sketchy."
On Thursday, family members were notified that his body had been found in a field in Soekmaekaar.
"He took boxloads of clothing from Hawaii all these years," Karen Beck said. "He never spent a dime on himself.
"Africa was quite a challenge for himm and he loved those people."
"He would help anybody. He wasn't too fussy, but he'd seek out the needy. His whole life was based around gathering those clothes," said Blake Beck, Merrill's nephew.
Soon after graduating from Lehi High School in 1955, Merrill Beck served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. He taught at Orem High School for four years.
Later, he moved to Oahu, where he was a professor and counselor at Leeward Community College in Sunset Beach. Beck held a Ph.D. in psychology.
Although Beck never married and had no children, he loved his nieces, nephews and their children, Karen Beck said.
Merrill Beck remained on Oahu even after retiring from Leeward several years ago, but he made frequent trips to Lehi.
"He was back in Lehi most every summer before his mother died last year," said Lehi Police Chief Karl Zimmerman, who was a high school friend of Beck's.
Zimmerman, who described Beck as "quiet and mild-mannered," recalled that Beck had said last summer he'd soon be going to South Africa again to deliver supplies to schoolchildren.
Besides delivering food and clothing, Beck gave money to South African poultry farmers who needed it, supported two soccer teams and helped put students through school.
He traveled to South Africa several times a year and usually stayed for a month or six weeks, Karen Beck said. He had previously made similar trips to Haiti. Merrill Beck's humanitarian work centered around a charitable organization he and a group of friends had formed.
Family members believe Beck was killed sometime between Feb. 7 and 10. They say the motive was likely robbery, since his rental car and luggage are missing.
Beck was a white man working in a heavily black area, but officials doubt that the slaying was racially motivated.
Beck didn't just love the people of South Africa.
"He was fascinated by the animals," Karen Beck said. "He just loved to sit and watch them. He's got lots of pictures of hippos and elephants.
"You couldn't keep him away, no matter how dangerous it was."