On Sunday, two days after a businessman pleaded with readers to contact the son of a Culver City family if they knew of his whereabouts in Panama, where he had been traveling on vacation for 3 weeks, a Panamanian fisherman discovered the dead body of Joey Lutz when it washed ashore about 2 miles from where he had drowned
A popular teacher of English at Santa Monica High School for the past 3 years, Mr. Lutz was 25 years old.
He graduated from Culver City High School in 2000, and in the intervening 8 years, his mother, Freda, told the Los Angeles Times that he had traveled widely. Meanwhile, he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from U.C. Santa Cruz.
Mr. Lutz’s father, Stuart, and his brother flew to Panama at the weekend, and his father identified the body, which has not yet been released.
Culver High Athletic Director Jerry Chabola described young Mr. Lutz as “a tremendous, gregarious, upbeat, great kid. He was super-popular with everyone. He was one of those kids with a tremendous sense of humor, and, on top of that, he was a very, very good student.
“This is a huge loss, a real tragedy.”
Mr. Lutz’s mother told the Times that her son “lived life as if he knew he was going to die young. He did it with passion. He did so much, even though he lived a short life.”
Jay Handal was the businessman who reported Mr. Lutz’s disappearance in Friday’s edition of the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Lutz said that witnesses said they had seen her son struggling to keep from drowning, but friends were unable to aid him..
In addition to his parents and brother, Mr. Lutz also is survived by his sister.
When the body is returned, Mr. Lutz will be buried at Hillside Memorial Park.
