Dead Grizzly Peak Hiker Identified as 24-Year-Old San Pablo Man

-By Bay City News

A man who fell to his death in the Berkeley Hills on Wednesday evening while drinking and hiking with friends has been identified as Jonathan Geovany Mendiola Urbina, 24, of San Pablo.

University of California at Berkeley police said they responded to a report of a hiker who had gone missing from his group near Signpost 15 on Grizzly Peak Boulevard at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Capt. Margo Bennett said when officers arrived, a hiking group of four people told them that the fifth member of the group had trekked to a different area and had not returned.

Police searched the area and found the man, later identified as Mendiola Urbina, down the hillside, Bennett said.

Bennett said police learned from the group that Mendiola Urbina and another hiker had started to climb a large rock in the area. The second hiker had left to return to the group but Mendiola Urbina stayed by the rock, she said.

Bennett said it appears Mendiola Urbina fell from the rock. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The members of the group said they had been drinking prior to the apparent accident, the captain said.

The apparent fall occurred on UC Berkeley property in the hills, but none of the group members are affiliated with UC Berkeley, according to Bennett.

The incident remains under investigation.