September 6, 2010

JAMAICA BEACH - A 44-year old Houston woman's body was pulled from the surf Sunday night, 2 1/2 miles from where she went into the water at Jamaica Beach.

Police Chief Andy McLane said Veronica De Leon Jaure was last seen in the water by her 19-year old son.  He went into the water in search of her and called 911 when he was unable to find her.

Jamaica Beach police officers Andrew Yavor and Travis Foreman, searching at Indian Beach, discovered the woman's body in the water about 15 yards offshore.

EMS medics pronounced her dead on the scene.

McLane told The Police News, Jaure was visiting for the day with friends in Jamaica Beach, a small village on the west end of Galveston Island.  Her son said she did not want to make the trip from Houston but did so at the insistance of her children.

Several miles of beachfront were searched by the Jamaica Beach Fire Department, Galveston Beach Patrol, Parks & Wildlife Game Wardens and Jamaica Beach Police before Jaure was discovered.  Chief McLane said she had been in the water about 2 hours.

"We think she stepped off a sandbar and into a trough or canal," he said. "There's a strong lateral current that runs parallel to shore, and what it does is it makes the trough between the sandbars even deeper so it could have gone from waist-deep to overhead in a couple of steps," said Galveston Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis.

Davis said his personell removed over 5,000 swimmers from unsafe areas and conditions over the Labor Day weekend.  High tides and dangerous currents have had 32 life guards and beach patrol officers extremely busy.

"It's the busiest holiday I've seen here," he told The Police News Monday.

Breck Porter