Family continues search for Marine who remains missing in Puerto Rico

The partner of the Marine who disappeared while swimming at a beach in Puerto Rico is holding out hope that he will eventually be found.

Natasha Castillo-Vargas said she and Samuel Muturi Wanjiru were on vacation when they went into the water together at Costa Azul Beach on March 27.

Wanjiru, 26, has not been seen since then. The Coast Guard launched helicopters and aircraft to look for Wanjiru, but those search efforts were unsuccessful. The active search was called off earlier this week.

Castillo-Vargas is still in Puerto Rico — along with her father and Wanjiru’s mother — and she has been returning to the beach where he disappeared, continuing to look for him.

“All we care about is him being found,” she said in a phone interview on Friday.

“We’re trying to rally divers that would want to volunteer to come out here and search the caves that are underneath these waters. People who have diving equipment already, if they want to come and bring it here, there’s a local lifeguard who has been here a very long time,” she continued. “He’s willing to go in with a team of people. He knows these waters. He’s willing to go in and help with the search but he can’t do it alone. He need other divers to go with him.”

She said there were no warning flags and no lifeguards at Costa Azul Beach when they went swimming March 27. The beach is known as a safe, familyfriendly beach, she said.

Castillo-Vargas said the visibility in the water has improved since last week, and she hopes that will help them find Wanjiru.

“We don’t want to give up,” she said. “I’m showing up here to the beach every single day, early in the morning and we don’t leave until the nighttime.”

Castillo-Vargas recently started a GoFundMe page to raise money to support the search efforts.

“Samuel’s mother and I are trying to get as much resources and help as we can because we will not give up hope in finding our Samuel,” the GoFundMe page states. “We ask that people send prayers and love during this devastating and heart aching time. We are firm believers in God as Samuel is too and we have faith that he will be found.”