• 2010.09.08: Family Remembers Peace Corps Volunteer Thomas Maresco  Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - 12:31 pm [1]

Father of Peace Corps Volunteer Thomas Maresco flying to Africa to bring home son's body



The elder Maresco said the flight was arranged by the Peace Corps and the FBI, but there are still a lot of questions about the trip. "Hopefully, my son's body will be in Johannesburg when I get there," he said Tuesday afternoon outside the family's Port St. Lucie home, "but I don't know. And I don't know when we'll be back. ... That's the hard part about all this, the questions and the uncertainty."

Father of Peace Corps Volunteer Thomas Maresco flying to Africa to bring home son's body

Port St. Lucie father flying to Africa to bring home son's body

* By Tyler Treadway

* TCPalm

* Posted September 7, 2010 at 4:37 p.m.

PORT ST. LUCIE - Thomas Maresco was scheduled to fly Tuesday evening to Johannesburg, South Africa, in an effort to bring home the body of his son, 24-year-old Thomas Carmine Maresco Jr.

The younger Maresco was shot and killed Friday in an apparent robbery attempt in the African kingdom of Lesotho, where he was serving with the Peace Corps.

The elder Maresco said the flight was arranged by the Peace Corps and the FBI, but there are still a lot of questions about the trip.

"Hopefully, my son's body will be in Johannesburg when I get there," he said Tuesday afternoon outside the family's Port St. Lucie home, "but I don't know. And I don't know when we'll be back. ... That's the hard part about all this, the questions and the uncertainty."

A 2004 graduate of Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, Maresco joined the Peace Corps after graduating from the University of Florida in 2008 and, following a year of training, was posted as a science teacher in the highlands village of Katse, Lesotho, in November 2009.

According to the Peace Corps, he also coached several sports, including basketball and swimming. He was a representative on the Peace Corps Lesotho HIV/AIDS committee.

Inspector Lekhotla Mojete of the Lesotho police told CNN that Maresco and a female friend were walking from a farewell function at a hotel in the capital city of Maseru when they were accosted by a gunman.

"The (assailant) started making demands of them, which they didn't fully understand," Mojete said, "and (the assailant) then shot" Maresco.

Mojete said the woman rushed back into the hotel to get help, but police were unable to find the gunman when they arrived on the scene.

Lesotho is a small, mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa. Maresco was scheduled to complete his Peace Corps service in January 2012.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: September, 2010; Peace Corps Lesotho; Directory of Lesotho RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Lesotho RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Crime; Fallen; Murder

When this story was posted in September 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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