14 traveled to Costa Rica for a bachelor party. The groom’s brother was among four who died.
The 14 friends waited for the rain and wind to subside before their guides gave the go-ahead for their Costa Rica rafting excursion. But the four-hour trip was cut to minutes when the rafters were tossed into the river and had to fight for their lives.
The rafts capsized repeatedly, wrote one of the survivors, Anthony Castro, in a post on the fundraising site GoFundMe. The men were swept down the Naranjo River in their life jackets and helmets, grabbing for rocks as they tried to survive.
Five died. Among them were Miamians Jorge Caso, Andres Denis, Ernesto Sierra and Sergio Lorenzo, the groom-to-be’s brother. Their rafting guide, Kevin Thompson Reid, also died. The group was in Costa Rica celebrating groom-to-be Luis Beltrán, whose wedding to Nicole Yero is scheduled for Nov. 30 in Palmetto Bay.
Bachelor and bachelorette party getaways have become popular in recent years, with many young grooms- and brides-to-be choosing international destinations.
“Luis, the man we hoped to celebrate all weekend, lost a brother and we all lost four great friends during this vacation which went horribly wrong,” Castro wrote.
On Monday, family and friends of the four young men — two of them former students at Florida International University — shared tributes to them on social media.
“He was an amazing person inside and out,” said one of Caso’s John A. Ferguson High School classmates in an interview with the Herald. She did not want to be identified publicly.
Others shared memories and photos.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You’ll always have a special place in my heart <a href="https://twitter.com/jorge_caso23?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jorge_caso23</a> <a href="https://t.co/ee0TP0kMQ6">pic.twitter.com/ee0TP0kMQ6</a></p>— ♛ (@_NatyPadilla) <a href="https://twitter.com/_NatyPadilla/status/1054196740189052928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If everyone can please try and give a donation. I lost a really cool friend in this accident. Sergio was a great dude and a father of 3. I’ll miss one of my closest coworkers and a great friend. <a href="https://t.co/dBQO7bf5e0">https://t.co/dBQO7bf5e0</a></p>— Jose Junior (@joseitoo_) <a href="https://twitter.com/joseitoo_/status/1054356543053987840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The GoFundMe site to raise money for funeral expenses for the four families raised more than $30,000 in the first 17 hours Monday. The site says that all funds raised after the $100,000 goal is reached will go to Lorenzo’s children. Family members declined to comment and asked for privacy.
The accident occurred near Costa Rica’s Pacific coast on a river whose water level was elevated because of heavy rainfall, ABC News reported. Costa Rica’s National Chamber of Tourism advised tour operators across the country Monday to abide by weather recommendations, although the tour company in this fatal accident, Quepoa Expeditions, is not associated with the chamber. Quepoa Expeditions did not respond to requests for comment.
“In these cases the companies have the obligation to act with the highest level of responsibility in order to avoid these kinds of tragedies,” the president of the chamber, Sary Valverde, told CRHoy.com.
Drowning has been the leading cause of death for American tourists in Costa Rica over the last five years, according to State Department data.
Saturday’s tragic accident follows two other fatal tourism incidents in Costa Rica in which Americans died. In 2015, a day cruiser capsized and sank, killing three people, including 68-year-old Edna Oliver of Mississippi. In 2017, a Nature Air plane crashed, killing 10 American passengers and the Costa Rican pilot and co-pilot.
This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 7:13 PM.