Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
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A talented young musician, the principal cellist with the UC Irvine chamber and symphony orchestras, is presumed drowned after vanishing from a South Laguna beach.
According to Orange County authorities and friends of the 25-year-old man, Gregory Donnell Smithe disappeared Oct. 10 while surf-casting from West Beach in South Laguna. Smithe had been fishing with a friend, Ben Pham, a classical guitarist. Pham told a professor that he left the beach for about 20 minutes to retrieve a wallet from a car on the bluff and, when he returned, Smithe was gone.
Smithe, described as a “street kid” from a modest San Francisco family who became recognized as a talented and dedicated musician, was working toward a master’s degree in music from UCI.
Pham said he searched the beach until 7 p.m., when he contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which dispatched a helicopter and Harbor Patrol boats to the spot where Smithe was last seen. Although friends say Smithe was a strong swimmer, he is now presumed drowned, according to Sheriff’s Lt. George Johnson.
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