Dad Finds Son's Body After Official Sea Search Fails

The body of a missing 20-year-old college student has been found in the waters off Mexico by his father, who was searching for him from a small plane. Scott Robert Fippinger, a junior at California State University San Marcos, had gone camping at a cliff-side campsite near Rosarito Beach with friends, reports U-T San Diego. His friends think he might have fallen over the cliff when he got up to go to the bathroom in the early morning hours of Jan. 14. Fippinger's phone was found by the cliff's edge.

His body was found Thursday by his father, Eric Fippinger, a retired Marine colonel and pilot, about a mile south of the cliff. Volunteers and Mexican officials had unsuccessfully searched the area with divers, boats, and helicopters. His father says Fippinger was majoring in anthropology and regularly made the dean's list. (More missing person stories.)