Suicide victim found in Big Basin

BOULDER CREEK — After a two-day search of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a man’s body with a single gunshot wound was found by sheriff’s search-and-rescue teams Thursday, Dec. 16.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies determined that the man was Jonathan Frank, a 57-year-old from Pennsylvania, whose Kia station wagon had been found parked in the Big Basin day-use parking area since Dec. 11.
“We found a male subject who is the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Lt. Bob Payne said Thursday afternoon. “We have not made legal identification (yet) to say if it is the missing person or not.”
The next morning, the coroner identified the body as Frank’s.
He was found about 5½ miles from the parking area, said Kevin Williams, supervising ranger at Big Basin. To get to the place, a hiker would have to take the Sunset Trail 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, carried technical rescue equipment, including climbing gear and a basket. He said it took at least an hour’s hike to get the body to a service road where the team could be met by a vehicle.
Dec. 16 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. More than 40 people covered 150 miles of trails and 17,000 acres of the park before the body was discovered. Searchers collectively put in more than 700 hours to find Frank.
Ammunition was found in Frank’s car, leading deputies to suspect he carried a gun. Reports suggest he recently split with his wife and lost his business.
The couple had addresses in Pennsylvania and Southern California, and Frank’s wife was contacted by the sheriff’s office in Pennsylvania.
“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.