MENDOCINO COUNTY – On the evening of August 12, 2025, California State Park Rangers and the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department responded to Portugues Beach at Mendocino Headlands State Park for reports of a deceased person later identified as a 66-year-old woman from Las Vegas.

Upon locating the body on the beach below a cliff, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to initiate a coroner’s investigation. Deputies located evidence that indicated the woman had traveled alone from out of the area to intentionally end her life. The decedent had injuries consistent with a great fall and criminal conduct is not suspected at this stage of the investigation. The official cause and manner of death will be determined after an autopsy is performed.

“These kinds of calls are never easy on first responders or on those who make the discovery of someone who has taken his or her own life.  We are grateful to our State Park rangers who respond to calls throughout the parks, as well as within the surrounding communities,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.