SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The parents of a University of California, Berkeley student initially reported missing after a Thursday terrorist attack in Nice, France, flew from California to find him, "thinking he was alive," a relative said _ only to discover that 20-year-old Nick Leslie would not be coming home.
"There was this hope, there was this hope, there was this hope," said Leslie's uncle, Alberto Leslie, who lives in the Los Angeles area. "It doesn't make any sense. Why weren't they told right away?"
Nick Leslie _ one of 85 UC Berkeley students in Nice for an entrepreneurship program _ was celebrating France's Bastille Day when a 20-ton truck plowed through the crowd, killing 84 people and injuring hundreds. UC Berkeley officials confirmed the student's death on Sunday based on information they said the FBI had received that day from its French counterparts. It remained unclear Monday why the Cal student was not initially counted among the dead.
Three other Cal students _ seniors Valdyslav Kostiuk, 23, and Diane Huang, 20, and sophomore Daryus Medora, 21 _ were injured in the attack. Kostiuk and Medora each suffered a broken leg and Huang a broken foot, campus officials said.
The campus was to hold a vigil Monday for Leslie, an environmental sciences major who planned to study at the Haas School of Business this fall. It will be the second this month. UC Berkeley sophomore Tarishi Jain, 18, died July 1 when gunmen took hostages at a popular restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Leslie's uncle remembered him as upbeat, personable, caring and unforgettable _ an only child who was very close to his parents. Leslie was from Milan, Italy, and went to Torrey Pines High School in San Diego.
The last post on the student's Facebook page shows Leslie and a friend in formal suits, making a toast. "Cheers to summer," he wrote.
His uncle asked that people pray for the young man's parents. "And send positive energy and light to them because they are in darkness right now."
