Edhat Staff
The Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau has released the identity of the man who climbed over a barrier fence and fell from an Isla Vista cliff on Saturday.
The decedent is 23-year-old Jacob William Aladar Parker, from San Diego.
Parker graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2023 and was in town for the annual All-Gaucho Reunion, a weekend event that brings UCSB alumni together.
On Saturday afternoon, Parker reportedly climbed over a barrier fence near 6625 Del Playa Drive, only to suffer a fatal fall down the 50-foot cliffs below at approximately 2:35 p.m. Despite being rushed to Cottage Hospital’s ER in Santa Barbara, Parker was later pronounced dead on the same day.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps has been a vocal proponent of funding safety measures on the Isla Vista bluffs as several people become injured, or die, from falls each year.
“We are begging property owners to do the right thing and make your balconies safer by raising fence heights and other common-sense precautions. Our office is providing financial incentives to raise fencing. Lives are on the line,” Capps said following the news of Parker’s death. “This tragedy is a stark reminder of how dangerous these bluff top properties are. Property owners: this is an urgent plea to do what’s right to help save lives. We all need to step up and make Isla Vista safer now.”
Spencer Brandt, Director of the Isla Vista Community Services District, has joined Capps in urging property owners to take action. Brandt emphasized the necessity for higher fence heights. The current fence stands at a height of 3.5 feet.
Parker’s death marks the 14th cliff-related fatality in Isla Vista in the past 20 years and the third within the last three years. In 2022, another UCSB alum, 25-year-old Chasen Alibrando from Santa Monica, suffered a fatal fall from the bluffs near the 6600 block of Del Playa Drive during the All-Gaucho Reunion. The following September, 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student Benjamin “Benny” Schurmer also died after falling from a cliff in Isla Vista.
A GoFundMe has been created as a “Memorial Fundraiser” for Parker’s family.
“He succeeded in everything he set out to do, humbly, as a man who encapsulated what it meant to be driven and hard-working. In so many different avenues, passions, and projects, Jake’s future was limitless,” the fundraiser states.
The Sheriff’s Office is actively investigating this incident, no further information was provided.
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Losing a child is an unspeakable horror that reverberates for years. May the future be gentle to the Parker family.
I am so sorry.
Condolences to his parents, siblings and friends and family. So sorry for what they are going through.
How awful. Every parent’s worst nightmare. I believe the cliffs there are about 20-25 feet not 50 feet though just as dangerous.
Look at the picture of the other article, the red fence is at least 4′ high which clearly shows it at about 50′ just like Co. Fire said.