Latest Drowning Victim Was To Turn 32

Petero Navosailagi was only a day away from turning 32 when he died in a drowning incident on Sunday.

The active church member, youth and women advocate died during a swimming trip with friends.

The late Mr Navosailagi, a Seventh-day Adventist Church Fiji communications officer, left Suva on Friday with fellow Pathfinder church youths for a three-day camping trip in Waiyala, Keiyasi, to celebrate the Pathfinders 70th Anniversary.

According to Police his body was found floating in a nearby river and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Fondly known as ‘Pete’, a remorseful SDA Trans-Pacific Union Mission General Secretary Pastor Bob Larsen said his passing is a big loss to the SDA office where he lived and worked for five years.

Pastor Larsen said the details surrounding Pete’s death were still sketchy as they await his autopsy report.

“It is certainly an untimely death. He was not sick or anything. He was well and our staff (members) have been in touch with his mother who lives in Lautoka,” he said.

“While he was here, this (SDA Church) was really his home and his mother would come occasionally to visit him.

“Pete was a people person who was widely-known to Church members.

“He loved solving problems. Like when he is dealing with his graphics stuff he would watch tutorials online and learn how to do things. He was self-taught, very creative, motivated, and a workaholic. He was a friend to everybody.

“We enjoyed working with him in this office, his death is a big loss to us. Today (yesterday) would have been his birthday, he would have been 32. We are all still in shock. No one ever expected it.”

The drowning death toll currently stands at 31 compared to 25 for the same period last year.

Investigations into his believed drowning continues.

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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