Body of missing Bristol officer located in Costa Rica
By News Staff news@abc6.com
The body of missing Bristol Police Officer, Richard Jean-Georges, has been located off the coast of Costa Rica Tuesday evening.
A desperate search was underway after 29-year-old Jean-Georges was reported missing in the ocean off Jaco Beach while vacationing there on Saturday.
Family told ABC6 News that Jean-Georges was swimming on the Pacific Coast with his 26-year-old brother, Manny, and cousins, when they were caught in a rip current. Manny was rescued but crews were unable to locate Richard.
His father, Manny Jean-George Sr., says Richard tried saving his younger brother when he was swept away, “My oldest was trying to rescue my youngest son and by the time they went to find my oldest… he was gone.”
The National Guard, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, and a team of local police officers searched by air, sea, and land, for Officer Jean-Georges. Bristol Police sent a team of officers to Costa Rica Tuesday morning to assist with the search.
His sister, Allison High, spoke to us Wednesday morning, saying, “At the end of the day he saved his brother’s life. He knew his duty as a big brother and that’s what he felt he had to do.” “…He could not have been more selfless, and it is just a true testimony to exactly the type of person that he was.”
Jean-Georges had been with the Bristol Police Department for three years.
© WLNE-TV 2015
