California College Graduate Is 14th Person To Fall From ‘Serial Killer’ Cliffs; family says death is ‘preventable’

Over the past 30 years, 14 people, including three students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have died falling from the same stretch of cliffs in Isla Vista, a neighborhood along the Santa Barbara coast.

Jacob Parker, a 23-year-old UCSB alumnus who graduated last spring, became the 14th victim to fall from the edge of the cliffs while attending a party on the afternoon of April 20 in one of the many houses leaning against the cliffs.

“He had so much potential. I just couldn’t wait to see what he would accomplish in life. This was just the beginning,” Jake’s mother, Deborah Parker, told Fox News Digital. “It’s just tragic that it was taken away from him.”

At the April 20 party, a large crowd of alumni and students gathered at the back of the house, at 6625 Del Playa Drive, on a concrete balcony overlooking the water. Jake had tried to push his way through the crowd to reach a balcony gazebo, according to his family.

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But as he struggled to get through people, Jake, 6 feet 1 inch tall, scaled a 42-inch-high metal fence onto a 33-inch-wide concrete ledge, bordered by an 18-inch metal rail high along the edge of the cliff. effort to get to the lookout. While trying to climb back into the group, Jake lost his footing and fell approximately 50 feet to his death.

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Deborah Parker and Jake’s father, George Parker, described their son’s death as preventable — especially after local lawmakers passed a safety plan in November requiring all new fences to be 6 feet high after the death by Benjamin “Benny, 19-year-old student at UCSB.” Schurmer on Labor Day last year.

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“I’m heartbroken. I’m crushed,” Jake’s father, George Parker, told Fox News Digital. “I’m at the point where this is now my job. Not just enforcing the law, but I really want to push for criminal charges.”

Jake’s parents are filing criminal charges — including manslaughter — as well as a civil case related to their son’s death in hopes there won’t be a 15th victim.

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“I don’t just want the money,” George Parker said. “I want people in prison.”

George Parker added his belief that property managers and owners “don’t care,” describing the inadequate fencing at the rear of these waterfront properties as a “clear and present danger that has been ignored.” He also compared the cliffs, which rise between 15 and 30 meters above a strip of sand, to a “serial killer”.

The Meridian Group, which manages the property, did not respond to a request from Fox News Digital.

The Santa Baraba County Sheriff’s Office said that while “there is no active criminal investigation,” the sheriff’s office “deputies issued a citation on the day of the incident to the adult host from the party to the residence for a violation of 36-6. of the Departmental Code (public nuisances – see subsection c4).”

“This report will soon be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review,” the sheriff’s office said.

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps, who introduced the security plan after Schurmer’s death, told Fox News Digital that she had heard from several properties along the bluffs for more than 70 that after sending letters offering a “fee waiver” to properties “to encourage and streamline this effort so that all property owners along the bluffs (Isla Vista) can contribute to the safety of our community without being unduly inconvenienced by costs.

Capps also described the 14 known deaths along the Isla Vista cliffs as “entirely preventable” accidents “waiting to happen” due to a “bizarre combination of people living in very cramped quarters along a cliff which has eroded considerably over the last 30 years.

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More than 40 years ago, there was a bike path along the same cliff edge that has since receded about 30 feet or more – and is losing inches every year.

In March, a balcony at the back of another student residence on Del Playa Drive partially collapsed during a storm over Easter weekend, when most students were away. A month earlier, in February, the balcony of a building in Del Playa collapsed, forcing 45 people to evacuate, according to KEYT. UCSB mentions cliff dangers during student orientation.

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Many UCSB students live on properties along Del Playa Drive that back onto the edge of the bluffs – known locally as “the cliffs” – and consider it an advantage to attend the coastal university with tuition of approximately $13,000 for in-state students and Tuition of $33,000 for out-of-state students.

“I don’t think parents realize how dangerous these houses along the bluff are, because if they were, they wouldn’t let their kids live there,” Deborah Parker said.

Capps said the 14 deaths are the result of a “perfect storm” of young people living in unsafe environments along eroding cliffs, parties that included alcohol and drugs and properties that are not maintained by managers. Some revelers arrive at these houses at night without knowing that they are backing up to the edge of high cliffs. She compared walking around the neighborhood on a weekend evening to leaving a football game, because there are so many middle schoolers out and about.

“I reached out to every mother who has lost children that I could get in touch with, and they have some very sensible ideas. There’s an eight-point plan on my website, and the first point is to increase the height of the fence,” Capps explained.

In 2009, Noah Krom, the 22-year-old son of former Irvine Mayor Beth Krom, a student at UCSB, died from a fall from cliffs.

“These tragedies will continue until the county enforces codes and standards for landlords who economically exploit students and have far too much power,” Beth Krom said in a Facebook post after Parker’s death. “Life is cheap in Isla Vista. It breaks my heart to know that another family has been destroyed.”

Krom described the cliff deaths as a “public safety crisis.” “I tell people, ‘Usually when people keep falling down the same manhole, someone puts a lid on it.'”

Geologists have been studying cliff erosion since the 1970s, and properties along the cliffs have been damaged by this erosion for at least three decades, according to UCSB’s Undergraduate Journal of History.

Jake Parker, who grew up in Redwood City, took a sales job in San Diego after graduating. His mother described the 23-year-old as a “very social and charismatic person with lots of friends”.

“Everyone loves being around him. He’s just the kind of person that draws people to him,” Deborah said. “He makes people feel comfortable. He’s very interested in what’s going on in their lives. He’s just a friend that people can count on.”

Original article source: California College Graduate Is 14th Person To Fall From ‘Serial Killer’ Cliffs; family says death is ‘preventable’