Investigators in California say a Calgary man is dead and his five-year-old daughter is missing after the pair were swept off the shoreline by a tall ocean wave on Garrapata State Beach.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office says 39-year-old Yuji Hu was with his wife and two children last Friday when an approximately six-metre-tall wave dragged his daughter into the Pacific Ocean.
The office says when Hu and his wife reached for their daughter, they, too, were swept into the water.
A beach visitor and an off-duty California park officer then pulled Hu out of the ocean and tried to resuscitate him while his wife made it back to the beach on her own.
The couple was taken to hospital where Hu died and his wife was treated for mild hypothermia.
The sheriff’s office says search for the couple’s five-year-old daughter is ongoing and their two-year-old child was unharmed in the tragedy.
“Information provided indicates the child was last seen wearing a white shirt,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release about the missing girl.
A large-scale search effort that saw a command post set up from sunrise to sunset on Saturday, with members of the U.S. Coast Guard, California’s fire service, divers and a helicopter searching for the girl, has since been suspended.
“On Sunday, California State Parks will maintain personnel on scene at Garrapata State Beach to continue shoreline and accessible-area searches on foot,” the office said.
“A spokesperson for the family has requested privacy during this difficult time.”
A California government website says Garrapata State Beach is a state park with two beach fronts and a 15-metre-tall cliff that oversees the Monterey coast.
