McClean, along with a group of seven friends, had been surfing Thursday on a beach known as Elephant Rock, a popular tourist destination between Arugam Bay and the city of Panama in southeast Sri Lanka. Afterward, McClean needed to use a restroom and ventured alone into a nearby area, overgrown with vegetation, to relieve himself, according to Fawas Lafeer, the owner of Safa Surf School, which is located about a mile up the coast.