Memorial Services for Two Girls Lost in Mud Slide
Diocesan Press Service. July 27, 1970 [89-12]
ROANOKE, Va. -- Memorial services for two young girls lost in a mud slide during their participation in a Companion Diocese summer project in Ecuador were held on Monday, July 20, in two Episcopal parishes of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.
Miss Susan Talbott, of Roanoke, was killed on July 13 when the jeep in which she was riding was hit by a sudden mud slide which ended in a river 300 feet below a jungle road.
The body of the second victim, Miss Rebecca du Priest, of Lynchburg, was not recovered although an extensive search was conducted by the Ecuadorian army.
Three other members of the party were injured and hospitalized following the accident.
The Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, Deputy for Overseas Relations, in letters to the families of the victims and to others in the Southwestern Virginia party in Ecuador, expressed his "love and concern" for the victims of the tragic accident and praised the Christian faith which had motivated the Ecuadorian project.
"I speak not just for myself but also for the Presiding Bishop," he said, "when I thank you and your colleagues and your Ecuadorian brothers for adding many cubits to our lives as well as to your own."
"You will be much in our prayers as we offer up our hopes for your complete and quick recovery; we shall continue to pray for Susan and Becky in their new lives; and we shall pray for continued blessings upon all faithful disciples like yourselves who go in the Name of Christ throughout the world. "
Services for Miss Talbott were held at St. John's Church, Roanoke. Services for Miss du Priest were held at Grace Church, Lynchburg.
The full party of 20 persons from the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, 14 teenagers and six adults, left for Ecuador on July 6 to work on projects in Quito and Guayaquil.
In spite of the accident other members of the party plan to stay in Ecuador until the completion of the summer project.