Jones was taking a late-night swim with the two other students when she disappeared off a beach at the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam just after midnight Saturday, the Times of Israel reported.
The two other swimmers managed to swim back to shore, but Jones went missing. A search-and-rescue effort that included divers was launched, but the young woman’s body washed up in Tel Aviv early Monday.
Jones, a University of Kansas sophomore, was wrapping up a seven-week exchange program in Amman, Jordan, where she studied Arabic, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
Jones, who was majoring in biology and Islamic studies, had just earned a spot in her school’s pre-med program, her mother, Tosha Thomas-Mora, told the News-Press of Fort Myers.
“She was supposed to start on Aug. 23,” Thomas-Mora said before breaking down in tears.
“She’s a decent swimmer,” Thomas-Mora said before her daughter’s body was found. But “the furthest I’ve known her to go is to stand and wade at the shore of the water and take pictures.”
