Family Flies to Hawaii in Cliff Tragedy

An Anaheim woman who watched in horror as her husband of five days slipped at the top of a Hawaiian waterfall and fell to his death knew that he would be killed but tried a dangerous rescue attempt on the “one in a million” chance that he would survive, her family said Monday.

Melinda Davis, 28, was listed in satisfactory condition at Maui Memorial Hospital after the Friday morning accident. She and James Donald Davis had been married July 31 in the Big Bear area and were in Hawaii for a weeklong honeymoon. They had planned to return to a home in Anaheim.

Wayne Knight, Melinda Davis’ brother, flew to Maui with other family members after the accident. He said Monday from Hawaii that his sister is conscious and talking and is expected to recover fully. He said she could be released as early as Saturday.

Knight said his sister had described those final moments at Wailua Iki Fall about 22 miles east of Kahului, a favorite stop for tourists on the Hana Highway.

“They were going up a long winding road with beautiful sights along the way, and they had stopped at a waterfall,” he said. “They were standing on either side of the waterfall taking little romantic pictures.

“Jim was getting ready to take another picture. He was a natural rock climber. But he slipped, and as he looked at Melinda he said, ‘Oh no!’ My sister said she knew instinctively that he had died.”

Davis fell 150 feet into a rushing stream, bouncing off the sheer face of the cliff along the way. An autopsy showed that he had died of injuries sustained in the fall. Police said later that it had been raining heavily and that rocks near the fall were particularly treacherous.

Even though she knew he could not have survived the fall, Knight said, his sister tried to climb down the cliff on the “one in a million chance.”

“She started to climb a different route and slipped,” Knight said. “But as she slipped, she said, she knew she couldn’t die because of her kids.

Clutched Camera That Fell

“She fell about 100 feet. The next thing she knows, she is lying on some sand underneath a bridge, which is about 200 feet from where she fell. She was clutching the camera that had fallen with Jim. She doesn’t know how she got it.”

For the next hour, she remained under the bridge, injured, trying to wave down cars. Some people who drove by apparently thought she was waving a friendly greeting and waved back without stopping.

Finally, state transportation department workers found her, and she was airlifted to the hospital.

Knight said his sister, who works at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center as a secretary in the orthopedic ward, suffered a compression fracture in her lower back, a fractured jaw, a broken left elbow, one or two cracked ribs and a broken finger. She also lost several teeth.

Knight said Melinda and Davis met about six months ago “and it was love at first sight. It truly was. They were just great for each other.”

Davis, who turned 29 on Aug. 2 while in Hawaii, worked as an appliance installer for Sears and was studying psychology at night at Pacific Christian College in Fullerton.

Melinda Davis has also been attending night classes, studying nursing at Rancho Santiago College.

It was her second marriage and his first. Davis had planned to formally adopt the two children from her first marriage, 6 years and 18 months old.

The wedding was a small, family affair. The honeymooners left for Hawaii the same day, leaving the children with the bride’s parents in Yorba Linda.

“I took a lot of the pictures at her wedding, and I got one of her cutting the cake,” her brother recalled. “She was so radiant.”

Davis was described as being as outgoing as his bride was sometimes shy.

“The guy is really vivacious, outgoing,” Knight said. “Everybody loved Jim. You couldn’t help but like Jim. Melinda’s kids loved him.”

Knight said that, on the flight to Hawaii, the honeymooning couple did not have seats together on the plane.

“So Jim--this tells you what he’s like--he starts negotiating with everyone on the plane, saying things like, ‘Now you sit here, and you sit there, and you sit over there.’ Everyone liked him so much.”

The drive up the scenic Hana Highway was apparently the last thing on the couple’s list of things to do before their scheduled return on Sunday.

‘One More Great Dinner’

“They had just enough money left to have one more great dinner,” Knight recalled his sister saying. “Because my sister has responsibility for the two children, this was the first time they had spent time really alone for an extended period of time. The kids were at home with the grandparents having a great time.

“It was one of those storybook romances. Some people are good for each other, and they fit into that category. Like my sister is deathly afraid of fish, but this guy in three days got her out there snorkeling and doing all sorts of things that I would never have believed Melinda would have done.

“It’s so sad, because everything was set. They had a house in Anaheim. He was going to adopt her kids. Our family was just so happy. Melinda was really settling down, getting her life together . . . and now this.”