The Boston Globe

Hyde Park brothers swept out to sea at Costa Rica resort

1 drowned; other is still missing

The two brothers had always been close. Darnell and Jermaine Zimmerman went to the same high school outside of Boston, loved the same sports teams, and were on the same flight Saturday for what was supposed to be a fun-filled trip to Costa Rica with their friends.

But on Sunday, both brothers were swept away by the powerful currents in front of their seaside resort on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, authorities said.

Darnell Zimmerman, 25, drowned and his brother Jermaine, 24, was still missing yesterday and presumed dead, said Rafael Angel Araya Cordero, regional director of the police in Guanacaste Province, in western Costa Rica.

Both lived in Hyde Park with their mother and were active members of the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Jamaica Plain.

Costa Rica's picturesque beaches attract many tourists each year, but the swift and powerful rip tides and currents, combined with the scarcity of lifeguards and warning signs, make them dangerous for the unwary. The US State Department warns travelers to exercise extreme caution when visiting the country's Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

Eight to 12 Americans drown there every year, according to the department's online travel advisory.

Darnell Zimmerman was pulled from the ocean around 2:10 p.m. Sunday.

It was just a day after the group arrived at Playa Azul, a remote, picturesque beach known for cobalt seas near a turtle sanctuary.

Local police and the Red Cross are still searching for Jermaine Zimmerman on boat and beach patrols, said Araya Cordero. Recovering a drowning victim could take several days, he said.

"We do all we can to find someone," Araya Cordero said in a phone interview from Liberia, a city to the north. "We'll always keep looking."

Yesterday, their group of friends waited and mourned in Costa Rica.

A friend who declined to be named said by phone that the group had been swimming together, a day after they had arrived.

"We were just all out there, and the current just pulled them in," he said.

The brothers were raised by their mother, Taundalier, after their father died of an illness when they were children.

She enrolled them in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a voluntary school desegregation program that sends students from Boston to suburban school districts.

The brothers graduated from Scituate High School, Darnell in 2002 and Jermaine, who was named to the honor roll several times, in 2003, said their sister, Sarcha Auguste of Brockton.

Darnell attended Bay State College and worked in a physical-therapy clinic, and Jermaine was a customer-service technician for Toyota in Framingham, the friend and relatives said.

Franky Auguste, their brother-in-law, said the two brothers often watched Red Sox and Celtics games together.

"They were really good guys, and they were really, really close," he said, adding that it would be unthinkable to "bury one without the other."

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.