Bill Johnson

Rocky Mountain News

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The lack of finality, I imagine, is the worst thing, the cruelness that accompanies the clear loss of a loved one whose body cannot be found, the one tangible possession that clearly signals that grieving can begin.

At least the family of little Jose Matthew Jauregui Jr. now knows, the boy's body having been recovered Wednesday from the South Platte River, miles from the gulch that flooded Monday and swept the 2-year-old and his stroller from his mother's hands.

"Our family is in shock. We're devastated," the boy's aunt, Julie Guzman, had told reporters Tuesday afternoon as fire crews continued to search the river and its banks for Matthew. "He was a beautiful boy."

It can happen in the simplest times. Matthew's mother, Elsha Guel, was strolling with him along a bike path near Rude Park on Monday when the skies opened, hail fell and rising water pushed through a tunnel on the path as she sought shelter there.

Others may never know their loved one's fate. There is the still-unidentified young man, believed between ages 15 and 20, who was said to have been swept away by the rain-swollen Goldsmith Gulch in Bible Park during the same Monday storm. Firefighters concentrated their efforts in recovering the little boy, since the fate of the young man seemed far less certain.

It happens like that, too.

Fate comes calling on life, and the outcome is unknown. That is why John Duvernet and his wife, Brandy, both of Denver, were packing their bags Tuesday night for a flight to Newport, R.I., to attend a vigil for her brother, Trey, lost at sea for more than a week now.

The news stories all say that Patrick (Trey) Topping III, 39, was captaining the Flying Colours, a 54-foot sailboat that is believed to have gone down with three others onboard in extremely rough seas some 120 to 160 miles off the coast of North Carolina a week ago Monday.

He was en route to Annapolis, Md., from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, when the last Flying Colours distress signal was received. At least three other boats also foundered in the 25-to-40-foot seas, their captains and crews all later rescued.

The Coast Guard, which dispatched a small armada of ships and multiple planes to search for the Flying Colours, called off its search on Saturday.

John Duvenet, 37, a downtown Denver bartender, was uncharacteristically solemn as he prepared for the flight with his wife for the vigil.

The toughest part, he said, is the not knowing.

Searchers have recovered not a single item from the Flying Colours - not even a lifeboat, which might be expected to surface even if the sailboat had sunk.

It is what has given Brandy, 34, great hope, he says.

"She's OK," he says softly. "She's been strong. It comes in waves. It helps that Trey is a strong dude, a good captain, who could still be out there without power, communications - just floating around. They found no debris. We are clinging to that."

The family's hope is buoyed by the fact that Trey was sailing with another highly experienced captain, Jason Franks, 34, and two experienced sailors, Rhiannon Borisoff, 22, and Christine Grinavic, 26.

"This was not his first time on the water," he said.

Indeed, John Duvenet had sailed on the Flying Colours with Trey Topping last October when his brother-in-law took the boat to St. Thomas for the winter.

"On this trip, he was taking the boat back to Annapolis and its owner. It was supposed to be a 10-day trip," John Duvenet said.

Those 10 days on the boat with his brother-in-law last fall filled him with a newfound respect for the man, he said.

"We got into some tough weather then and he rode it through skillfully," he said. "All he told me afterwards was that was sailing - long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

"God, he loved to sail."

When not on the boat in the winter months, Trey Topping would explore the world, climbing the Himalayas, exploring Africa, working as a movie extra in India, even spending the night in jail after unsuccessfully haggling with a water- taxi driver in Bogota, Colombia.

"If he could not sail," John Duvenet said, he would load up a backpack, pick some place to travel and set out on the road."

He and Brandy called initially, he said, to ask people not to forget, to maybe say a prayer, to maybe convince the Coast Guard to look again, if only one more time.

In the meantime, John Duvenet said, they will gather with family and friends in Newport and, if nothing else, keep Trey alive by coming together and celebrating his life.

"Here's what I know," he said. "If Trey is gone - and I don't believe it for a second - he died doing what he absolutely loved to do.

"You can't ask for more than that."

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com

About Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson has gained most of his journalistic experience on the West Coast as a staff writer, reporter, editor and columnist. He has also been a faculty member of the University of Arizona's Editing Program for Minority Journalists within the Institute for Journalism Education. Johnson won the National Headliner Award's First Place for Columns in 1995 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary in 1993.