Garden Grove : Man Jumps to Death From Tower of Hope

A 26-year-old man jumped to his death Monday from the Tower of Hope, a 14-story office building on the grounds of the Crystal Cathedral, police said.

Kenneth Bradley Jakes of Villa Park jumped from a platform on the building’s external stairway, Police Sgt. Bruce Beauchamp said.

“We don’t have any idea what story he jumped from,” Beauchamp said.

A volunteer in the church’s 24-hour telephone counseling service on the seventh floor of the tower said he had heard a noise as though something had fallen about 4:30 a.m., church spokesman Michael Nason said.

The volunteer called a custodian, who found nothing, Nason said. But a church employee on the way to work Monday morning found Jakes’ body on a roof overhang above a reflecting pool.

The tower is locked at night and is closed to the public, Nason said. The outside stairway is locked at ground level and police did not know how Jakes had gained access to the stairway.

“We are really saddened by it,” Nason said. “We’re a ministry to help people. This is very tragic. We feel it deeply.”

Jakes was neither an employee nor a member of the church, Nason said. But Jakes’ father told authorities he had attended services with his son Sunday at the Crystal Cathedral.

No suicide note has been found, Beauchamp said, adding that Jakes’ father, a Villa Park resident, told authorities that his son had been depressed because he was unable to see his young children, who are in the custody of his ex-wife in Texas.