Kirsten Elisabeth Wolcott was murdered yesterday (Nov. 18, 2009) in Yap, Micronesia. Kirsten was a student missionary from Southern Adventist Univeristy, teaching at the Yap SDA School. The American went missing after reportedly going on an early morning jog before classes. She was found dead, away from the school’s campus.
Local police have now begun an investigation. Leaders from the church's regional administrative headquarters, the Guam-Micronesia Mission, took the one-hour commercial flight from Guam to Yap Wednesday evening to assess the tragedy affecting the school and provide grief support for other teachers.
Kirsten, 20, was a junior education major from Southern Adventist University. She had taken a year off to participate in the university’s student missions program. Ten other student missionaries are also serving in Yap, Micronesia.
Southern Adventist University’s student missions program gives students the opportunity take a year off from school to be student missionary in either a foreign country or in the U.S. Job assignments are diverse such as teaching, doing construction work, working as a youth pastor, etc…
SAU has set up a memorial page about Kirsten. You can post messages of hope and memories of Kirsten on that page.
UPDATE (11/23/09): According to the university, the FBI has made an arrest in connection to the murder. Reports say that there is a lot of anger among the islanders at what happened and that they are supporting the Adventist school and the student missionaries. University administrators are on their way to Micronesia to comfort the other student missionaries.
Sources: Adventist News Network, Southern Adventist University
