07/08/2003

By DOUG IRVING and PAT DOORIS, KGW Staff

A Peace Corps volunteer from the Portland area has died while serving in the West African nation of Mali.

The body of Zack Merrill was found Monday in the large village of Bla, where he had served for nearly two years. Mali police and the U.S. Embassy were investigating his death, but a Peace Corps spokeswoman said it does not appear suspicious.

“It’s very highly unlikely that there’s anything of suspicion involved,” said Barbara Daly, the Peace Corps press secretary in Washington, DC.

The Peace Corps believes Merrill died Sunday and also is investigating the circumstances, Daly said. She declined to give further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Merrill, 24, graduated from Lake Oswego High School in 1998. He was due to complete his two-year tour with the Peace Corps in November, Daly said. He had requested a one-year extension to focus on information technology in Mali; the Peace Corps was in the process of approving that request.

Merrill had stayed with a host family in Bla during his service there. Daly did not know what project he had been working on.

Merrill’s family declined to comment.

“He was definitely a very popular, well-received volunteer,” Daly said. “I’ve heard so many things about him.”

The Peace Corps has about 175 volunteers working in Mali, and some of them are working in the vicinity of Bla, Daly said.

The last Peace Corps volunteer to die overseas was Beth Bowers, who died in Africa in 2001 after a bike accident.