Friends of a 24-year-old woman swept away by powerful waves at a California beach have described the terrifying moments when they lost sight of her in the surf.
Se Nah Park disappeared last week at Panther State Beach in the Bay Area after gathering around a bonfire with five friends. She has not been found.
Park’s friends, Marie and Jasmine, told the East Bay Times that they had burned note cards bearing their wishes for the future before leaving the beach as waves battered the shoreline around 8 p.m.
Marie said there had been no warning that anything was wrong. The group did not know about National Weather Service alerts cautioning that dangerous surf could produce life-threatening waves.
Before leaving, the friends hugged and exchanged what would become their final words to Park.
“The last thing I said to her was, ‘I’m so grateful that you’ve been my friend for so long, and even if we haven’t talked in a while, I really want this to continue. Can we stay friends?’” Marie recalled.
“And she said, ‘Yes. I really like that.’”
As the group moved through a narrow passage in the rocks known as a keyhole, accompanied by Park’s two male cousins, a massive wave crashed over them.
The impact knocked everyone off balance, left them disoriented and swept them into the ocean.
Jasmine managed to surface just before another wave hurled her against a cliff beside the water, dislocating her shoulder.
She recalled the chaos and fear of those moments.
“You can’t really see anything because you’re surrounded with so much fear,” Jasmine said. “It’s dark, and it was so loud.”
Park’s cousins helped Jasmine through the rocky passage to safety, then returned to search for Park.
They heard nothing. Jasmine said she thought she saw the glow of an iPhone flashlight on a swell roughly 30 feet away, but she could not determine whether it belonged to Park.
Once they realized Park was missing and discovered they could not reach 911 from the beach, the group rushed up a trail along the cliff.
After finding a signal, they called emergency responders.
Jasmine and Park’s cousins hoped she had somehow made it back to Marie and another friend. They asked a chilling question.
“Is Se Nah with you?” they called.
Park was nowhere to be seen.
That was when Marie understood that her friend was gone.
“This isn’t happening,” she told herself.
Emergency crews arrived and treated the group, while an ambulance transported Jasmine to a hospital.
Marie collapsed while telling the East Bay Times what had happened, overcome by grief and regret that she had not been the person swept away.
“It should have been me,” she said.
Marie said she has worried about online harassment from people who might blame her for Park’s disappearance. At the same time, she has been struggling with intense guilt.
“I should have known not to come here. I should have known better,” Marie said. “Everyone’s telling me it’s not my fault, but I should have taken care of everyone. There’s a lot of should-haves and could-haves. But I just want her back.”
The guilt became so overwhelming that Marie expected to be turned away when she attended a special prayer service for Se Nah at San Jose Christian Alliance Church.
“I expected them to turn me down at the door,” she said. Instead, she was met with an outpouring of compassion.
“I was overwhelmed by how much love and forgiveness there was.”
Jasmine said the pastor’s wife told her that she had been given a second chance at life.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for Park the day after she disappeared, saying its “deepest condolences are with her family and loved ones.”
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office sent a fixed-wing aircraft to search for Park on Tuesday, but crews were unable to find her. So far, only her shoes and a keychain attached to her bag have been recovered.
Missing-person flyers have been posted at the beach, and Park’s friends continued searching for several days after her disappearance. Marie said she has been consumed by thoughts of what Park might miss if she is gone.
“Ever since I left the beach, all I can think about is her face,” Marie said, “what it must have been like, how cold it was, and how she won’t be able to spend another Christmas or Thanksgiving or do the things she had been looking forward to.”