Students hold vigil for Kali

Despite soggy skies and a biting wind, more than 100 Skyline High School students attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday for fellow student Kali Breisch, who has been missing in Thailand since the tsunami hit the day after Christmas.

Some spoke of hope and some urged friends to hold on to positive memories of the girl.

Breisch, a sophomore, was swept away from a beachside bungalow and has been missing since.

Skyline senior KJ Palauni, who had been dating Breisch since the beginning of the school year, said he arranged the vigil just to get everyone who cared about her together for support.

"I was sitting at my house just thinking, and it was so frustrating," Palauni said. "There was nothing I could do. I just felt so frustrated being that I couldn't look for her, I couldn't do anything."

During the vigil, Palauni talked about Breisch and performed a song amidst tears and hugs.

"Kali was just the funnest person to be around — way outgoing and way too smart for herself," Palauni said. "No one else had a sense of humor like her. No one else is like her. She was one of a kind."

Breisch's teachers say she was a straight-A student, well-liked and very bright.

"She was kind of a leader in the class, very bright, always happy, but she had a very calming influence," said Wayne Moyle, Breisch's honors chemistry teacher.

"She was one of those people that are just brilliant — always up for anything and never cared about what anyone thought," said Kylie Peterson, a close friend of Breisch's. "It's just been so empty and so strange, I have been feeling hope, but as each day passes it's harder."

The Los Angeles Times reported Breisch's father, Stuart; his girlfriend, Sally Nelson; and other daughter, Shonti, 18, had gone out diving early Sunday morning, leaving Kali and her brother, Jai, 16, to sleep late in the bungalow on Thailand's Khao Lak beach when the water hit.

Jai is alive, having ridden the torrent of water and debris until the wave finally stopped its push inland and receded, mercifully without him. He's currently in a hospital in Bangkok, where Nelson watches over the teen's recovery from a badly cut knee, reported the Times.

Stuart Breisch told the Times that each day he continues searching for Kali, though he's exhausted and weary of looking at thousands of dead bodies. He has been following a trail along the beach peppered with her belongings, "Abercrombie and Fitch everything."

Skyline Principal Kathy Clark said Breisch, if not found alive, will be the fourth student the school has lost this year.

Charlene Edmunds, a family friend and director of community relations at Jordan Valley Hospital where Stuart Breisch is employed, said the family has not confirmed a return date.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com