COURTESY OF THE WHITE FAMILY AND KITV4 NEWS Drowning victim Jennifer White is shown in a family portrait that includes her rescued son, Aaron, 8, right, and other son, Tyler, 9, who has not been found.

Mother dies after saving son on Kauai

The Colorado visitor saved her 8-year-old, but her 9-year-old has not been found

ANAHOLA, Kauai » Two days after saving one of her sons from drowning in Anahola Bay, Jennifer White of Gunnison, Colo., died yesterday at Wilcox Hospital.

White, 32, rescued Aaron, her 8-year-old, from a rip current near the remnants of Anahola Pier at about noon Saturday. But when she went back for Tyler, her 9-year-old son, she had to be rescued by a bystander.

White's son, Tyler, and 17-year-old John Dacuycuy, a Kapaa High School student, have not been found since they disappeared in rough waters at separate beaches Saturday.

Yesterday, another woman was rushed to Wilcox Hospital when she stopped breathing during a scuba-diving lesson in Kauai waters. Her condition was not known last night.

After a day of searching for the two boys, Kauai officials called off the "active search" last night.

"If something should come up to indicate that we need to go back, we certainly will," Kauai Fire Chief Robert Westerman said.

Rescuers were forced to split their time between two sites, in Anahola and in Nukolii, near Lihue, where Dacuycuy disappeared while swimming.

Dacuycuy, a senior at Kapaa High, was also caught in rip currents along Kauai's windward shore.

At Kapaa High, Dacuycuy's friends were easy to spot all over campus -- with some of them with his name painted on their faces, students said. Dacuycuy was remembered with a minute of silence, while his classmates tried to honor him as best as they could.

A huge banner was unfurled on the wall of one of the school's portable classrooms -- with his name and hundreds of well-wishing messages.

Classmates also gathered at the Marine Camp in Nukolii, where Dacuycuy was last seen.

Partial remains were found there Sunday, but county officials have yet to determine if they were human.

Anahola Bay and the Nukolii Marine Camp area are unprotected from tradewind swells.

While many of Kauai's drownings occur on the North Shore, the Nukolii area was tied for the sixth most dangerous beach on the island in regards to drownings from 1970-2003, according to a 2004 Kauai Beach hazard survey compiled by former Kauai lifeguard Patrick Durkin.

Anahola, meanwhile, has taken the lives of numerous residents and tourists over the past few years.

Former Acata, Calif., mayor and part-time Kauai resident Victor Schaub drowned in April 2004 while trying to save his grandchildren, who had been sucked out in rip currents. The children survived.

In the incident yesterday, a woman was rushed to Wilcox Memorial Hospital after she stopped breathing during a scuba lesson.

The 58-year-old woman from Natchitoches, La., a beginning scuba diver, was attending a lesson around noon near the Koloa Landing on Kauai's South Shore. Her scuba instructor noticed she was having difficulty breathing, and he brought her to shore and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Firefighters and medics responded and transported her to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. County officials said they were unsure of her condition last night.