Authorities: Crumbling cliff at Bodega Head led to Petaluma man’s death

A friend of the victim scrambled down the cliff, pulled his body from the water and started chest compressions, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.|

A man who fell to his death Tuesday at Bodega Head on the Sonoma Coast apparently lost his balance as a cliff edge crumbled under his feet, authorities said.

He was identified by friends as a 27-year-old Petaluma resident. The Sonoma County Coroner’s Office did not release his name Wednesday pending family notification.

The man and three friends traveled from Petaluma to Bodega Head - a site that offers expansive views of the ocean and Bodega Bay and is popular year-round. About 6 p.m. the four pulled into the western parking lot, and the victim dashed from the car ahead of his friends.

“He got out and ran to the edge of the cliff and the sand gave way under his feet,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said. “He fell to the water below.”

The cliff edge stands about ?70 feet above the waterline. Several coastal agencies responded to calls for help about 6:05 p.m.

One of the friends headed down a nearby trail, cutting over along the steep face and scrambling down to a beach. He swam into the ocean to his friend’s body, pulled him out and started chest compressions. Unable to revive his friend, he waited with the body until help arrived, Crum said.

But the pounding surf made it hard to hold on and the friend yelled up the cliff for a rope.

Darla Schoenrock was sitting in her car at Bodega Head, watching the sunset and eating fish and chips when she heard a commotion. A woman was calling out for rope.

Schoenrock, who keeps emergency equipment in her car, offered a rope to the distraught friends who then threw it to the man below.

Bodega Bay firefighters and other emergency responders who’d rigged ropes and harnesses lowered firefighters to the beach with a stretcher, in a recovery effort that played out in view of numerous people on the head. The crew found the victim’s friend with the rope, trying to keep the body from being pulled out into the ocean by pummeling waves.

“He was trying to hang onto his friend the whole time,” said Bodega Bay Fire Capt. Lou Stoerzinger, who helped with the recovery operation.

The body was hoisted up the cliff, while a CHP helicopter lifted the friend to the cliff top as numerous people gathered and watched.

Schoenrock, who’d been videotaping the firefighters, said she and another woman, whom she believed was a nurse, offered emotional support to the grieving friends while helping corral people back from the edge.

A frequent visitor to the site, the Petaluma woman raised concerns with what she said was a lack of enough signs warning people about the various dangers, including crumbling cliff edges, especially following heavy rain.

The fall happened about 15 feet west of the lookout point’s west parking lot, an area surrounded by a roughly 3-foot-high fence, said Damien Jones, a supervising ranger for the Sonoma Coast State Parks.

He said a warning sign in the area reads “sheer cliff” and “stay back,” though it’s unclear whether the victim saw the sign.

Deaths at Bodega Head happen infrequently but usually involve someone falling. Officials routinely warn of the need to keep a safe distance from the cliff edge. Rain also makes ice plant hugging the ground slippery, adding to the danger, Stoerzinger said.

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