Adventist student missionary found slain in Micronesia

A 20-year-old Seventh-day Adventist student missionary from Virginia was found slain on the Pacific island of Yap after going jogging near the school where she was teaching.

Kirsten Elisabeth Wolcott, from Laneview in Essex County near Tappahannock, had taken a year off from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn., where she was a junior education major, according to an article on the Adventist News Network Web site.

An arrest has been made in her death, said Louis Torres, president of the church's Guam-Micronesia Mission.

Wolcott had gone running alone before morning classes, the article said. Her body was found with stab wounds in a wooded area.

"This is devastating news, not only for the family but for the school and the Adventist Church," said Homer Trecartin, associate secretary for the Adventist world church and director of Adventist Volunteer Service.

Students and staff at Richmond Academy of Seventh-day Adventists are mourning Wolcott, said teacher Tonya Hurt.

"She just touched the lives of so many people in this building," she said of Wolcott. "She was so happy. She was a friend with everybody in the building."

Wolcott's dream was to be a teacher like her mother, Karen Wolcott, who teaches at the Tappahannock Junior Academy, also an Adventist school, Hurt said.

"She was a gifted musician. She played the harp," she said.

She also played the piano and sang in Bel Canto, the women's chorus at Southern Adventist. She won several 5K runs and placed third among women in the Toys for Tots 10K Race in Newport News.

She graduated with high honors in 2007 from Richmond Academy of Seventh-day Adventists. At Southern Adventist, she was on the distinguished dean's list.

Contact Tom Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6494 or .

Staff writer Juan Antonio Lizama contributed to this report.