APEX, N.C. (ABP) — A Baptist teenager from North Carolina died Sept. 9 in an apparent accident at a church youth retreat.
Ozzie Vargas Jr., 17, died after falling from a zip line at Camp Oak Hill in north Granville County. He was a member of the youth group at Apex Baptist Church in Apex.
Vargas was airborne traveling on a zip line, which is a taut steel cable on which a sliding harness carries a single passenger down to a landing area below. The trip, from a 47-foot-tower, should have taken him across the camp's 9.5-acre lake. But instead Vargas' harness disengaged from the zip line and he fell to his death before reaching the lake.
Vargas' cousin, Kyle Medero, 16, was sliding down another zip line when Vargas fell.
Peter Rochelle, executive director at Oak Hill, said no other accidents like this one had ever occurred in the camp's 30 years.
“We are all shocked and deeply saddened by this tragedy,” Rochelle said. “Our hearts really do go out to his family and his friends. Our ministry right now is to lift them up in our prayers.”
Rochelle said the incident is under investigation and that he could not comment further. An article on the Raleigh News & Observer web site said the zip line was shut down after Vargas' death.
In another newspaper article, Rochelle said the harness was at the state Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill. The office confirmed Vargas died as a result of injuries suffered in the fall.
Jim Wall, president of Cornerstone Designs, told the newspaper the camp's zip line is one of more than 250 in North Carolina. The company built Oak Hill's in 2003. The company builds about 40 zip lines each year.
An inspection of the zip line tower was conducted by Cornerstone in July. Wall said no follow-up training had been done by his company since the camp opened.
Camp Oak Hill is not accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA), said Rhonda Mickelson, the group's Southeast executive director. About 80 North Carolina camps have received the ACA accreditation, which requires the camp meet about 300 safety standards during a six-to-nine-month inspection process.
Chuck Thompson, who serves as the church's youth pastor, said Vargas was “the guy who would light up the room,” Thompson, who has worked at Apex Baptist Church for 21 years, said the group leaned on each other over the weekend. “We're still processing this,” he said.
“God worked incredibly,” Thompson said. “The whole situation was traumatic. We continued to pray, to sing … to hold onto each other. We cried on each other's shoulders.”
After the accident, the youth group did not go home immediately. They stayed through the night and arrived back at the church around lunchtime Sunday afternoon.
J. D. Greear of Durham was the retreat's preacher. He said Thompson told him to preach the same message he was planning. The result was like nothing Greear has ever seen, he said. “I've never seen a group come together like that in love and faith.”
Thompson told the students that Vargas was a “guy whose life was transformed” by his relationship with Jesus, Greear said.
Vargas was planning to attend North Carolina State University and study to be a video game programmer.
Vargas is survived by his mother and stepfather, Maria and Fred Comploier of Apex; his father and stepmother, Ozzie Sr. and Nancy Vargas of Broward County, Fla.; his sister, Jenelle Vargas; other siblings, Abigail Vargas, Axisa Castro, Justin Andrades, and Christian Vargas; grandparents Angel L. Medero and Miriam Davila, Raul and Elsie Vasquez, and Maria Comploier.
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