Make California Post a Preferred Source Friends of the 24-year-old woman tragically sucked in by powerful waves at a California beach described the terrifying moments they lost sight of her in the surf.
Se Nah Park, 24, disappeared at Panther State Beach in the Bay Area after gathering around a beach bonfire with five of her friends last week. She has yet to be found.
Park’s friends Marie and Jasmine told the East Bay Times they had burned note cards with their wishes for the future before they fled the beach as waves pounded the coast around 8 p.m.
There was no indication anything was wrong, Marie said. The group was unaware of National Weather Service warnings about hazardous surf capable of producing deadly waves.
The friends hugged and recalled their parting 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 recounted.
“And she said, ‘yes. I really like that.’”
As they headed through a keyhole passage in the rocks with Park’s two male cousins, a huge wave came crashing in.
It knocked the group off their feet, disoriented them and shoved them into the water.
Jasmine emerged from the water just in time for another wave to slam her into an oceanside cliff, dislocating her shoulder.
“You can’t really see anything because you’re surrounded with so much fear,” Jasmine said, “and it’s in the dark, and it was so loud.”
The cousins helped Jasmine through the keyhole passage to safety before going back for Park.
They couldn’t hear anything. Jasmine said she thought she saw an iPhone flashlight glowing in the face of a swell about 30 feet out. She couldn’t tell whether the light came from Park.
Realizing Park was missing, and unable to call 911 from the beach, the group hurried up a cliffside trail.
They found a signal and called emergency responders.
Hoping Park had made it back to Marie and another guest, Jasmine and Park’s two male cousins had a haunting question for them.
“This isn’t happening,” she said to herself.
Emergency crews arrived at the scene and treated the group. An ambulance took Jasmine to the hospital.
Marie collapsed while recounting her story to the East Bay Times, lamenting that she hadn’t been the one swept away.
Marie has feared online harassment from people blaming her for Park’s disappearance. But she has also struggled with guilt of her own.
“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 weighed so heavily on Marie that she expected to be turned away from Se Nah’s church, San Jose Christian Alliance Church, during a special prayer service.
“I expected them to turn me down at the door,” she said, but instead found an outpouring of compassion.
“I was overwhelmed at how much love and forgiveness there was.”
The pastor’s wife told Jasmine she had received a second chance at life, she said.
The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for Park the day after her disappearance, offering their “deepest condolences are with her family and loved ones.”
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office deployed its fixed-wing plane on Tuesday to search for Park but was unable to locate her. Only Park’s shoes and a keychain attached to her bag have been found.
Missing flyers are out for Park at the beach and her friends searched for her multiple days after her disappearance. Thoughts about what Park will miss, if she’s truly gone, have swirled in Marie’s mind.
“Ever since I left the beach, all I can think about is her face,” Marie said, “and what it must have been like, and how cold, and how she’s not going to be able to spend another Christmas or Thanksgiving and do the things that she’s been wanting to do.”
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