Jakov Vucetic, 19, Dies on Triglav as Search Ends
Slovenia's mountain rescue service has closed the Triglav operation. His father, Nikola Vucetic, awaits an autopsy in Ljubljana and described his son's last night to Informer.
The search for Jakov Vucetic (19) of Preljina, near Cacak, on Triglav has ended with the discovery of his body. Slovenia’s mountain rescue service confirmed the operation is over, and his father Nikola Vucetic, a parish priest in Preljina, has stayed in Ljubljana to wait for the autopsy.
How did the Triglav search end?
The Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia (Gorska resevalna zveza Slovenije) answered Kurir with a short message:
We wish to inform you that the rescue operation in the Triglav area has ended. Unfortunately, the missing person was found without signs of life.
In the same reply, the service offered condolences to the family and loved ones. No official cause of death has been given, nor the exact place or altitude where the body was found.
On Monday, November 2, rescuers from the GRS Bovec and Mojstrana units found his backpack and part of his hiking gear at Plemenice. Fog then halted the search for two days, and it resumed on November 5, when the sky cleared. A helicopter crew from Brnik airport took part, along with aircraft of the Slovenian army and police. The service described the terrain this way:
The intervention took place in very demanding terrain, in extremely difficult and highly unfavorable conditions (snow, ice, rain, wind and fog).
The search lasted about five days in all, and his father stayed in Slovenia with the rescuers throughout.
What is known about his last contact?
Jakov set out for Triglav on Saturday. According to his father, he spent the night between Saturday and Sunday in a hut at about 1,500 meters. It was around 10 degrees when he started out, and snow began to fall overnight.
On Sunday, November 1, he told his family and the mountain rescue service that he had been stopped at Plemenice by thick fog, wind and darkness. Sources differ on the time of the call: Kurir says it was around 7 p.m., while his father told Informer the conversation took place around 6 p.m., when the phone had 4 percent battery left. He sent rescuers his coordinates and listed the winter gear he was carrying. His father says he was reasonably prepared, except that his footwear was not suitable for such conditions. On Monday, rescuers found only the backpack and equipment at the marked spot.
What does his father say?
Nikola Vucetic told Informer that the family and he had prayed in Slovenia for his son to be saved, and that they now have to accept the outcome:
We prayed that he would be saved in one way; the Lord saved him in another. We have to come to terms with that, and however hard it is, we must find the strength to cope with the pain that has found us.
The discovery, he said, fell on the feast day of Saint James, when his son celebrates his name day. Of what happened on the mountain, he said:
When he set out on Saturday the weather was nice and sunny, it was 10 degrees, but during the night snow began to fall on the mountain, winds of over 100 kilometers per hour were blowing, and somewhere, because of the reduced visibility, he slipped.
He added that it was all over by then. That is the only explanation offered so far, and it comes from the father, not from the Slovenian service or investigators.
What happens next in Ljubljana?
The father said the body was expected to be transported from Trenta to the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, to the Department of Forensic Medicine, where the autopsy will be carried out. After that, he says, the family hopes to leave for Serbia the next day, but he cannot confirm it with certainty.
In Ljubljana, he said, they are guests of the brotherhood of the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whom he thanked. The portal reported on the search earlier, in its story on the continued search on Wednesday.
