Sunset swim turns tragic
Sangudo man swept away
It was the dream vacation Kathalean and Curtis Chase had been looking forward to for years: A week at a beachside resort in Costa Rica, a tropical getaway from the Alberta winter, and their first major trip in their eight-year relationship.
The couple was out for a sunset swim after dinner on March 28 when the dream turned into a nightmare.
Kathalean said she and Curt were walking in waist-deep water when a wave suddenly pulled them back into the ocean.
She said she felt her husband shove her toward shore and heard him yell, “Swim, baby!”
She did. When she turned around expecting to see him beside her, he was gone.
“I just started screaming his name,” Kathalean said Sunday.
But she said she knew it was already too late.
Having grown up in the Okanagan, Curt, 38, was a good swimmer, but Kathalean said the ocean swimming in Costa Rica was “a different ball game.”
For more than a week, Red Cross searchers looked for Curt’s body, as Kathalean waited helplessly for the news she knew was coming. She said she cried for three days straight, having anxiety attacks and nightmares where she would wake up feeling like the ocean was pulling at her.
Kathalean was at the shore putting flowers in the water when Curt’s body was discovered by two surfers a short distance down the beach. She was at the scene as officials pulled him from the water.
She said it seemed like people expected her to break down, but instead she felt calm.
“I felt a little bit of closure,” she said. “It was like his spirit was with me, telling me that after that things were going to start getting easier.”
Kathalean and Curt met at a party about eight years ago. The attraction was strong and instantaneous, Kathalean said.
She described him as “larger than life,” a fun, caring man with a great sense of humour, and a taste for “utilikilts,” a non-traditional kilt for men which Curt used to wear with work boots.
Daniel Walters met the couple through mutual friends about four years ago, and said he liked Curt and Kathalean right away. He described Curt as “the life of the party.”
Curt and Kathalean merged their families — he had one child from a previous relationship, she had two — and built their lives together in the small community of Sangudo, north of Edmonton. Kathalean said it was “perfect.”
“We had the kind of relationship everyone was jealous of,” she said.
Curt was a self-employed safety officer, and started a new position in the oilfields in November. Kathalean said the trip to Costa Rica was their first vacation out of the country, and both counted down to the trip on Facebook. Three days before his death, Curt wrote: “In 18 hours, Kathalean Chase and I will be on a plane bound for Costa Rica, for two beautiful weeks. … We’ll post lots of pics.... Lots of love for everyone!”
Kathalean said Curt had no life insurance because he was self-employed, and the house they were building remains half finished. Walters said friends have volunteered to help finish the house, and a fund was being set up to help the family.
Kathalean remained in Costa Rica on Sunday, waiting for authorities to release her husband’s remains so she can return to Alberta.
The Sangudo man’s death was confirmed Sunday by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
Consular officials are in contact with local Costa Rican authorities. They said they have also been providing assistance to his family.
Kathalean said she is hoping to be able to have his body cremated there, so she can hopefully bring his remains home by the end of the week.
“I think I came closer than I even realized to drowning,” she said. “With his last words and his actions, he saved me and told me how much he loved me. I just miss him very much.
“And I just want to come home.”