California college grad the 14th person to fall off 'serial killer' cliffs; family says death 'preventable'
Over the last 30 years, 14 people, including three University of California, Santa Barbara, students, have fallen to their deaths from the same stretch of cliffs in Isla Vista, a neighborhood along the coast in Santa Barbara.
Jacob Parker, a 23-year-old UCSB alumnus who graduated last spring, became the 14th victim to fall off the cliffs' edge while he was attending an afternoon party April 20 at one of the many houses that back up onto the bluffs.
"He had so much potential. I was just looking forward to seeing what he would accomplish in life. This was just the beginning," Jake's mother, Deborah Parker, told Fox News Digital. "It's just tragic that it was taken away from him."
At the April 20 party, a large crowd of alumni and students had gathered in the back of the house at 6625 Del Playa Drive on a concrete balcony overlooking the water. Jake had been trying to push his way through the crowd to get to a gazebo on the balcony, according to his family.
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But as he struggled to push through people, the 6-foot-1 Jake climbed over a 42-inch tall metal wire fence onto a 33-inch wide concrete ledge, bordered by an 18-inch tall metal rail along the cliff's edge in an effort to make it to the gazebo. While trying to climb back over into the party, Jake lost his footing and fell about 50 feet to his death.
Deborah Parker and Jake's father, George Parker, have described their son's death as preventable — particularly after local lawmakers passed a safety plan in November requiring all new fences to be 6 feet tall following the death of 19-year-old UCSB student Benjamin "Benny" Schurmer on Labor Day last year.
"I'm heartbroken. I'm crushed," Jake's father, George Parker, told Fox News Digital. "I'm at the point where this is now my work. Not just getting enforcement, but I really want to push for criminal charges."
Jake's parents are pursuing criminal charges — including involuntary manslaughter — as well as a civil case related to their son's death in the hope there will not be a 15th victim.
"I don't just want money," George Parker said. "I want people in jail."
George Parker added his belief that property managers and owners "just don't care," describing the inadequate fencing in the back of these waterfront properties as a "clear and present danger that has been ignored." He has also likened the cliffs, which stand between about 50 and 100 feet above a strip of sand, to a "serial killer."
The Meridian Group, which manages the property, did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps, who brought the safety plan forward after Schurmer's death, told Fox News Digital she has only heard from several properties along the cliffs out of more than 70 after she sent letters offering a "fee waiver" to properties "to incentivize and streamline this effort so that all property owners along the [Isla Vista] bluffs can contribute to the safety of our community without being unduly hindered by costs."
Capps also described the 14 known deaths along the Isla Vista cliffs as "entirely preventable" accidents "waiting to happen" because of a "bizarre combination of people living in very cramped places along a cliff that has eroded dramatically in the last 30 years."
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More than 40 years ago, there was a bike path along the same cliff edge that has since receded some 30 feet or more — and losing inches every year.
In March, a balcony in the back of another student house on Del Playa Drive partially collapsed during a storm over Easter weekend when most students were away. A month earlier, in February, the bacony of an apartment building on Del Playa collapsed, forcing 45 people to evacuate, according to KEYT. UCSB mentions the dangers of the cliffs during student orientation.
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Many UCSB students live on the properties along Del Playa Drive that back up to the edge of the cliffs — locally known as "the bluffs" — and consider it a perk of attending the coastal university with an approximate $13,000 tuition for in-state students and $33,000 tuition for out-of-state students.
"I don't think parents realize how dangerous these homes are along the cliff, because if they were, they would not let their kids live there," Deborah Parker said.
Capps said the 14 deaths have resulted from a "perfect storm" of young people living in unsafe environments along the eroding cliffs, parties that include alcohol and drugs and properties that are not maintained by managers. Some party attendees arrive to these houses at night not knowing that they back up onto the edge of tall cliffs. She compared walking around the area on a weekend night to walking out of a football game because it is so dense with college kids out and about.
"I've reached out to all the moms who have lost kids that I could get in touch with, and they have very sensible ideas. There's an eight-point plan on my website, and the first point is raising the fence height," Capps explained.
In 2009, former Irvine Mayor Beth Krom's 22-year-old son Noah Krom, a UCSB student, fell to his death from the cliffs.
"These tragedies will continue until the county puts teeth in its enforcement of codes and standards for property owners who economically exploit students and have way too much power," Beth Krom said in a Facebook post following Parker's death. "Life is cheap in Isla Vista. It breaks my heart to know that another family has been destroyed."
Krom described the cliff fatalities as a "public safety crisis." "I tell people, ‘Usually, when people keep falling through the same manhole, somebody puts a cover on it.’"
Geologists have been studying the erosion of the cliffs since the 1970s, and properties along the bluffs have been damaged by that erosion for at least three decades, according to UCSB's Undergraduate Journal of History.
Jake Parker, who grew up in Redwood City, accepted a job in sales in San Diego after his graduation. His mother described the 23-year-old as a "very social, charismatic person with a lot of friends."
"Everyone enjoys being around him. He's just the type of person that attracts people toward him," Deborah said. "He makes people feel very comfortable. He's very interested in what's going on in their lives. He's just a friend that people can count on."