SANTA CRUZ ISLAND : 200-Foot Fall Kills Man on Nature Hike

A 61-year-old Oklahoma attorney fell to his death from a 200-foot cliff on Santa Cruz Island after he wandered ahead of a tour group to explore a remote trail, officials and a family member said.

Thomas Barrett, a semi-retired lawyer on vacation, was pronounced dead on arrival Sunday at St. John’s Medical Center in Oxnard. He died of multiple injuries to the head and chest, said Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens of the Ventura County coroner’s office.

The U.S. Coast Guard--which took Barrett by helicopter to St. John’s--reported that Barrett fell from the cliff’s edge to the island’s northern rocky shoreline.

Off-duty emergency workers who were boating in the area also responded to the call about 3 p.m. and tried to revive Barrett, said Wade Ambros, a man fishing in Port Hueneme who listened to the calls on the radio.

Barrett, joined by his wife, daughter and son-in-law, was hiking on an island tour that explains the island’s geography and history. A staff naturalist led Barrett and 18 others on the one-day trip, said James Sulentich, the island’s program director.

Santa Cruz, the largest of the Channel Islands owned primarily by the Nature Conservancy, reported that Barrett’s death was its first fatality in at least five years, Sulentich said.

A father of six children, Barrett was on a weeklong vacation in Santa Barbara, said Sharon Fulton, a daughter.

“He was probably just enjoying the view,” Fulton said. “Evidently, my mom and sister and brother-in-law were further behind” when they heard people yelling that someone had fallen.