Rock Climber Killed in Fall Is Identified
A 21-year-old man who died Monday while rock climbing in Los Padres National Forest has been identified as Robert Patrick Billingsley of Maricopa, a Ventura County coroner’s official said Tuesday.
Billingsley died from a head injury after falling about 250 feet while trying to scale a cliff known as the Sespe Wall along California 33 north of Ojai, sheriff’s deputies said. He died instantly, said Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate.
Billingsley’s 28-year-old brother, David, was climbing the same wall and had to be rescued after his brother fell.
Wingate said both men were free-climbing without ropes or safety equipment when the accident occurred.
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