Jessica Paikarovski, 33, died Friday in the freak accident, which occurred as she sat with a friend near a pool on the Pacific Ocean on a private beach in Puerto de La Libertad, El Salvador.
EDISON - A local photographer and artist traveling with an American Ska band drowned after she and a friend were swept into the Pacific Ocean, the woman's sister confirmed Monday.
Jessica Paikarovski, 33, died Friday in the freak accident, which occurred as she sat with a friend near a pool on a private beach in Puerto de La Libertad, El Salvador.
"The pool relied on ocean water to fill it up," said the sister, Ann Paikarovski. "A wave came over them and sucked them under."
Paikarovski, who went by the stage name Jess Distress, had been traveling with the New Brunswick band Inspecter 7.
Paikarovski was sitting at the pool with the band's saxophone player Friday evening when the accident occurred, Ann Paikarovski said.
The band member was identified in a news account as Fernando Leon. He suffered broken bones but survived, Ann Paikarovski said.
"My sister, being all of 90 pounds soaking wet, didn't make it," Ann Paikarovski said.
An El Salvador news agency reported that Paikarovski's body was recovered two hours after the accident.
Ann Paikarovski described her sister as a burlesque performer, artist and photographer who "did a little bit of everything." She had traveled extensively through Europe and was on her first visit Central America at the time of the accident, her sister said.
After graduating Edison High School, Paikarovski attended Middlesex County College and a performing arts school in New York City, her sister said.
"She was a free spirit, kind-hearted, would do anything for anybody," Ann Paikarovski said. "She was definitely a unique person."
A lifelong friend described Jessica in a Facebook post as a free spirit who did what she wanted.
"Although petite, she was one of the toughest girls I will ever know," wrote Vanessa Kopec. "She did what she wanted and wouldn't take no for an answer. She lived her short life to the fullest and traveled the world and experienced more than most people did in a lifetime."
Paikarovski leaves behind her parents, Risto and Janina; two sisters; two nephews and a niece.
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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.