Friends Say Man Jumped to His Death

After divers searched unsuccessfully Tuesday for the body of a man whose friends told police he had jumped to his death from the Mugu Rock outcropping, detectives questioned his disappearance.

The Sheriff’s Department identified the missing man as 42-year-old Steven Marks of Los Angeles. Divers searched the area near Point Mugu, but suspended operations when they could not find Marks’ body, said Keith Parks, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

Two friends who were with Marks early Tuesday told police that around 2 a.m. he suddenly turned and ran from them, jumped over a retaining wall and fell to the jagged rocks and surf below, Parks said.

A suicide note was later found in the man’s car, Parks said. “It was apparently a surprise to [the friends],” said Parks. “They weren’t aware of the note in the car.”

Detectives, however, have not yet ruled the disappearance a suicide.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” Parks said. “With a suicide you [often] have independent witnesses. That’s something different from two friends who claim he ran off. That’s something we have to look at.”

In addition to divers, authorities also sent out a helicopter, a Coast Guard cutter, and searchers from the California Parks Department to look for Marks.

Mugu Rock, just south of Pacific Coast Highway, can be treacherous. Although fenced off, hikers, sightseers and fishermen frequently cross through openings to reach the steep outcropping.

Earlier this year, an amateur photographer apparently slipped and fell to his death on the windblown rocks.