Jayden Liu, a 2022 graduate of the Bromfield School, drowned early Thursday morning, May 30, while swimming with friends at Bare Hill Pond. He was 19 years old.
Liu was a well-liked, outgoing, and athletic member of his class. He was an outstanding student, captain of the tennis team, a star backfielder on Bromfield’s 2021 state champion soccer team, and nationally ranked billiards player. He was a rising junior at UMass Amherst, where he was majoring in finance.
“Soccer was his passion,” recalled Epiphany Vera, who coached Liu for many years as he rose through the ranks of youth soccer after his family moved to Harvard in 2009. He was the recipient of the 2022 Tom Hill Athletic Scholarship, awarded yearly to the senior “who best exemplifies commitment, dedication, passion, selflessness, and overall team play.” In presenting that award, varsity soccer coach Alex Horne described Liu as “a great soccer player, a bright student, and an even better person.”
But Liu was a standout academically as well. He won the 2022 Central Mass. Athletic Directors Award, presented to the senior athlete with the highest grade point average, someone who “excels in the classroom as well as on the field,” according to Bromfield’s athletic director, Dave Boisvert. And at the soccer team’s annual banquet he received the team’s “All Academic Achievement” award. He was good at math, recalled Vera, who coached the school’s Math Olympiad team at the time.
The unfolding of a tragedy
News of the incident arrived via a 911 call received by Nashoba Valley Regional Dispatch shortly after midnight Thursday. Liu, who had joined three friends to swim to a nearby island, had been struggling and was no longer visible where last seen approximately 250 feet from the shoreline near Barba’s Point.
Harvard police, fire, and EMS were dispatched to the location and reached the isolated spot via the Barba’s Point trail behind the Bromfield School. Officers and emergency responders from neighboring towns who arrived to join the search were assisted by a mutual aid dive team, equipped with a boat and side-scan sonar, who coordinated their efforts. Harvard police deployed a drone equipped with an infrared camera to scan the water from above.
Under cloudy skies and a waning moon that didn’t rise until after 1 a.m., it took searchers an hour to locate the missing swimmer’s body at approximately 2:09 a.m. In a phone call and follow-up email exchange last week with the Press, Harvard Police Chief James Babu said that according to Liu’s companions, the four friends had parked near the tennis courts behind Bromfield and walked to Barba’s Point, intending to swim as a group to a nearby island. The boys separated as they swam and during this time Liu disappeared.
Babu said there were no signs of physical injury and hypothermia was not a factor. However, he said, the reports of the Harvard and state police would not be available until the Worcester County district attorney approves their release. The report of the medical examiner will take longer.
A community mourns
There has been an outpouring of sympathy and support for the family, according to Alison Thornton, a close friend whose son, Nick, was a member of the 2022 tennis team. “Their refrigerator is full,” Thornton told the Press.
School Superintendent Linda Dwight informed students and their families of Liu’s death in an email Thursday morning, May 30, offering counseling to students as needed. Counselors hosted a “drop-in support space” for students last Thursday and Friday; alumni were invited to meet together in this space as well.
A poster of Jayden Liu signed by former teammates and coaches hangs on a fence at McCurdy Track. (Photo by John Osborn)
That afternoon, two of Liu’s former soccer teammates, Theo Bradley and Geraghty Vellante, left a photo, flowers, and a wicker basket with paper and pencil for notes of remembrance on the Common, a memorial that continued to draw photos and flowers this week. At Barba’s Point, someone had left a card that read, “Love you, Jayden.”
More than 40 current and former soccer players and their coaches gathered Sunday afternoon at McCurdy Track for a “drop-in kickaround” to remember their teammate. So many showed up, coach Horne said, that the group divided into three teams and scrimmaged for more than an hour. “It was a really special gathering for current and former players on both the boys and girls teams,” he said. The group left behind an enlarged photo of Jayden in his Bromfield uniform with more than 50 signatures.
The family has opened a Jayden Liu Memorial on Facebook (https://tinyurl.com/jaydenliumemorial) where friends were invited to celebrate his life and contribute to a fund in his memory. Vera and Horne told the Press they were working with Dwight to plan a candlelight gathering on the Common next week, possibly June 12, though a final date and time have not yet been released.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Badger Funeral Home of Littleton. A viewing was scheduled there for June 5 from 4 until 7 p.m.
