BOULDER CREEK – A man’s body with a single gunshot wound was found in Big Basin Redwoods State Park by Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams on Thursday afternoon at about 1 p.m.
Sheriff’s deputies have not yet said if it is the body of Jonathan Frank, the 56-year-old man whose Kia station wagon was found parked in the Big Basin day-use parking area since Saturday, Dec. 11. The body did not have identification with it.
“We found a male subject who is the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Lt. Bob Payne said at 3:30 p.m. at the ranger station in the park. “We have not made legal identification (yet) to say if it is the missing person or not.”
Payne said a team of about 16 Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team members were on the scene Thursday afternoon preparing to carry the body out of the park.
A crime scene investigation unit and coroner are part of the team.
“It’s apparently a pretty precarious spot,” Payne said.
The body was found off about 5 ½ miles from the day-use parking area of the park, said Kevin Williams, the Big Basin supervising ranger. To get to the place, a hiker would have to take the Sunset trail for several miles to the Berry Creek Falls Trail in the park, a heavily-wooded wilderness area.
“It’s very steep, very rugged terrain,” Williams said. “When you get rain on it, it’s very slippery.”
The search and rescue team, Payne said, included technical rescue equipment including climbing gear and a basket. He said to get the body to a service road where the team could access a vehicle was at least an hour hike.
Payne said the team is trying to extract the body before it starts raining tonight.
Thursday was the second full day of searching by the Sheriff’s Office. The effort included deputies and K-9 teams, search and rescue volunteers, motorcycles and a mounted posse. The group covered close to 80 miles of trails in the 18,000-acre park before the body was discovered.
Deputies hope to release the man’s identity by Friday morning.
Ammunition was found in Frank’s car, leading deputies to believe he was carrying a gun. Reports are that he recently split with his wife and lost his business.
“The people we contacted were pretty sure he was ‘not in a good place right now;’ those were some of the words they used,” Payne said.
