Two Virginians confirmed dead in Mumbai

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A father and his teenage daughter from a Virginia community that promotes a form of meditation were among those killed in the terrorist attacks in India, a colleague said Friday.

 

Alan Scherr, 58, and daughter Naomi, 13, were in a cafe Wednesday night in Mumbai when they were killed, said Bobbie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the Synchronicity Foundation. The U.S. State Department confirmed their deaths on Friday morning.

The Scherrs were among 25 foundation participants in a spiritual program in Mumbai. Four others on the mission were also injured in the cafe attack in the luxury Oberoi hotel, Garvey said, including two women from Tennessee.

The Virginia father was a Maryland native and a former college professor who lived at the Synchronicity sanctuary about 15 miles southwest of Charlottesville.

"I would call them bright stars," Garvey said of the Scherrs. "Extraordinary, bright, very positive -- examples to the world."

The Scherrs had lived at the foundation all of Naomi's life, Garvey said. Alan Scherr's wife, Kia, and her two sons did not travel with them to India.

According to the foundation's Web site, the community is led by Master Charles, a former leading disciple of Swami Paramahansa Muktananda. He is described on the Web site as "one of the most popular spiritual teachers from India to build a following the West in the 1970s." He taught a form of yoga.

Garvey identified those injured as: Helen Connolly of Toronto, who was grazed by a bullet; Rudrani Devi and Linda Ragsdale, both of Nashville, who both underwent surgery for bullet wounds; and Michael Rudder of Montreal, who remains in intensive care after being shot three times. Other members of the mission narrowly escaped the attack.

Ragsdale's sister Diane Garrison told The Associated Press that Linda's husband Ben had recently arrived in the country to see his wife. The family did not know the extent of her sister's injuries and were hoping to get an update soon.

"We're anxiously awaiting news," Garrison said. "The state department has been outstanding in providing information and staying in contact with us."

Devi, who was previously identified by her mother by the name Andi Varagona, owns a body alignment shop in Nashville and teaches meditation classes. Ragsdale is a children's author and illustrator who teaches and demonstrates art in schools and libraries.

Devi's mother, Celeste Varagona, said Thursday that her daughter called her husband, Santos Lopez, late Wednesday to tell him she was shot. She told her mother early Thursday that she had surgery to recover a bullet lodged in her thigh. A second bullet pierced her arm and grazed her neck.

Meanwhile, an ultra-orthodox Jewish group based in Brooklyn confirmed that a New York rabbi and his wife are among the dead in the India terrorist attack.

Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who ran the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's local headquarters in Mumbai, India, were killed during a hostage standoff at the center, the group said.

On the Web:

Synchronicity Foundation

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