BELOIT -- Panamanian authorities and family members say a Wisconsin teenager died on a church mission trip to Panama this week.
The body of 16-year-old Malachi Taylor, of Beloit, was found on the beach in the town of Las Lajas on Thursday evening after a search that lasted nearly two days.
The regional civil defense director in Chiriqui province, Francisco Santamaria, says the youth was participating in a religious mission in the community of Potrerillos, but had a day off and went to the beach.
The youth's mother, Lisa Taylor, tells the Beloit Daily News her son disappeared after saving a young woman from drowning in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday afternoon.
The rest of the group from Good News Christian Church remains in Panama. They're scheduled to return Saturday.
