ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University officials learned Monday of a fatal accident involving a 20-year-old Ohio University student while she was on an international student exchange in the Costa Rican rainforest.

Jennifer Ritzmann, a junior in environmental and plant biology from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was on a fall semester program at the Tropical Biology and Conservation Center at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. Ohio University officials were told that late Saturday afternoon (9/19/98), Ritzmann took a walk alone in the rainforest near the residential station where program participants were staying. She told a fellow student that she would be back before nightfall, about 5:30 p.m. On her way back, it appeared that the path she took was close to a waterfall. She evidently slipped and fell into the waterfall, striking her head and drowning.

A search party was organized and found Ritzmann's body Sunday afternoon. Her parents were notified by the New York- based Council of International Educational Exchange. They were flying to Costa Rica today to claim the body.