Costa Rica beach drowning victim identified as US tourist

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Costa Rican law enforcement officials have finally identified a drowning victim found by the Costa Rican Red Cross on May 15.

The Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) and U.S. Embassy in San José confirmed the man’s identity as 34-year-old Ibrahim Karadsheh. Karadsheh, who lived in Los Angeles, California, disappeared on May 10 at 1:16 p.m. while swimming near the El Hicaco restaurant on Jacó’s main beach, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, according to reports from OIJ and the Red Cross.

Red Cross spokesman Freddy Román previously told The Tico Times that Karadsheh was caught in a riptide and pulled out to sea. The body was eventually spotted more than 2 miles out by an Aerial Vigilance Service search-and-rescue flight on May 15.

According to statistics from the Red Cross, 19 people died in water-related accidents in 2014 in the province of Puntarenas, home to Jacó and many of Costa Rica’s famous beaches.