Cliff fall victim dies during rescue

A 20-year-old San Jose woman died Monday afternoon in a fall from a cliff on the Santa Cruz County coast, a sheriff’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Jennifer Diaz-Ocampo died following a 100- to 150-foot fall from a cliff just north of the unincorporated Santa Cruz County community of Davenport, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Chris Clark said.

Deputies were called at 4:02 p.m. and told about Diaz-Ocampo’s fall.

She and friends were looking off the cliff for access to the beach below, but the ground gave way underneath Diaz-Ocampo when she was a foot to a foot and a half from the edge, Clark said.

Rescuers could not get to her from land. Lifeguards swam to her and took her to the beach where a California Highway Patrol helicopter hoisted her up the cliff.

Rescuers hoped to transfer Diaz-Ocampo to a trauma helicopter and get her to a trauma hospital. She was alert and talking when lifeguards got to her, but she died before rescuers got her to the trauma helicopter, Clark said.