Woman’s body found by hikers on Mendocino Coast

A woman was found dead on the rocks at the base of a steep cliff near Caspar Point on the Mendocino Coast late Wednesday afternoon, Mendocino County authorities said Thursday.

Two young adults hiking the Caspar Headlands made the grim discovery shortly before 6 p.m. while scrambling over the rocks to explore a cove, Mendocino Coast State Park District Superintendent Loren Rex said.

The deceased person was described as a white woman believed to be in her 40s. She was found at the foot of an approximately 70-foot cliff, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Van Patten said.

She was wearing street clothes and appeared to have been exposed to the elements for a relatively short period of time, Rex said.

Deputies were working still working Thursday to identify her, Van Patten said. He said there were no obvious signs of foul play.

An autopsy also was planned Thursday to help determine her cause of death, he said.

Rex said the body was found in an area of steep bluffs and rocky shoreline west of the Caspar Inn on a part of the Caspar State Beach.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.