Search for Lynn woman halted

LYNN – State and local authorities halted the search late Wednesday afternoon for a 22-year-old Lynn woman missing since she was swept off a sandbar Tuesday near Plum Island in Newburyport.The victim, identified as Marinna Khon, was a 2006 Lynn Classical grad.U.S. Coast Guard crews had ceased rescue operations earlier Wednesday, but Newburyport Harbormaster Paul Hogg said local authorities would resume the search today with sonar instruments being utilized.According to at least one published report, Newburyport police Marshal Thomas Howard said Thursday’s search was considered a recovery effort not a rescue effort, indicating that Kohn is dead.The group of Khon’s friends, mostly from Lynn and Revere, were apparently caught unaware by the rising tide at approximately 5 p.m. Good Samaritan boaters in small vessels, an area harbormaster and local police were able to rescue seven others washed off the treacherous sand bar.Those rescued included Hoya Nguyen, 22, of Revere; Rahtha Saygnarath, 24, of Lynn, co-owner of the Foot Traffik athletic shoe store in Saugus; Thanada Saygnarath, 21, of Lynn; Calvin Keo, 20, of Lynn; a 21 year old from Lynn and a 20 year old from Revere. All but two of those rescued were carried off in stretchers to waiting ambulances. Two were able to walk but witnesses said one was unconscious.The young men and women had planned a day of fishing from the beach and touch football on the sand, hoping to enjoy the unseasonably warm day that pushed temperatures into the 90s. A woman who identified herself as Rahtana Ny, 27, of Lynn, said she was among the group when the tide began rising quickly and people started screaming.”All of a sudden, everyone was screaming,” said Ny, who was on the beach fishing with three others and tried to help, but the current was powerful in the narrows where the Merrimack River races into the Atlantic Ocean.Newburyport Police Sgt. Peter Finnegan said the friends were in knee-deep water amid calm seas when the conditions changed, pulling them into the rush of water and out to sea.Khon’s mother, Sokhan Khon of Lynn, told news reporters at the scene Wednesday morning that her daughter just graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in computer science and had returned home a few days ago to look for jobs. “I still hope that my kid is still alive,” she said.The missing young woman told her mother she was headed to the beach to beat the heat. “She told me she was going to the beach. I though she would go to Lynn Beach or to Nahant,” the distraught mother told NECN television news.Khon took two advanced-placement and two honors classes in her senior year. She also participated in the Upward Bound program for students headed to college.”She was an excellent student,” said Classical High Principal Gene Constantino.Social studies teacher Andrew Fogarty, who had Khon in his class, recalled she was “very smart and very outgoing.”Before attending Classical High, Khon was a student at the Tracy and Connery elementary schools, and Breed Middle School, according to School Department records.Keo, glad to be alive, used his mobile phone to post a Facebook message thanking those who came to their aid. Responding to a Facebook message from The Daily Item, Keo said, “I was one of the many that was rescued at Plum Island but I’m sorry, I’d rather not discuss this whole incident at all. I’m still in awe of what happened. I send my condolences to the Khon family. I’m still trying to deny the truth.”Earlier Tuesday, Ny posted a message to her Facebook account, telling all she was going to the beach to soak up the sun and get tan. That was at 4:18 p.m., less than an hour before the emergency unfolded. Ny was the only member of her group who didn’t enter the water Tuesday.The Good Samaritans – on a jet ski and gaggle of small boats – took the seven survivors to the Captain Lady Dock near the town pier on Plum Island where emergency medical personnel were standing by.The Coast Guard has advised staying a