St. Michael Teacher's Parents Still Missing in Cruise Ship Tragedy

After the hopeful news of rescuers aboard the nearly-capsized Costa Concordia yesterday, last night's news was much more grim.

Tuesday morning, rescuers thought they heard voices inside the hull of the ship, which has listed onto its starboard side. They were, carefully, detonating small explosives to reach different areas of the cruiseliner, which was carring 4,200 passengers and crew members.

But, last night, crews were moved away from the ship when the Concordia shifted along the rocky coast of Giglio. Boats evacuated Italian Coast Guard workers and firemen from the ship to the Tuscany Coast, and the men and women working to search the cruise liner could only watch as the ship rocked once again.

According to a BBC report, there are still 23 people missing, including the parents of St. Michael's Aaron Heil, a teacher at

Gerald and Barbara Heil, of White Bear Lake, are the only Americans still unaccounted for after the Friday, Jan. 13 tragedy. Eleven people have died. Resuers found five of those bodies yesterday, but have not released names.

The Heil family released one statement to the Associated Press Monday, saying their thoughts were with their parents, the rescuers working to recover people from the ship, and with those lost in the tragedy.

St. Pius X Church in White Bear Lake will hold a prayer service for the Heils tonight. The two were very active in church service there, with Gerry often taking eucharist to sick and elder parishoners.

The church has been holding prayer vigils since the Heils were announced as missing in the accident Sunday, and was profiled in an Associated Press report yesterday.

The prayer service tonight is set for 7 p.m. at St. Pius, located at 3878 Highland Ave. in White Bear Lake.

Aaron Heil remains on leave, according to the St. Michael-Albertville School District, as he tries to find his parents. Big Woods Principal Lee Brown said the school is respecting the Heil family's request for privacy at this time.

St. Michael-Albertville residents were working to establish an account for Aaron and the Heil family at To donate, stop at the location in St. Michael and request information.