Boy Killed When Sand Cave Collapses

BODEGA BAY, Calif. — A family from Arizona was renting a house in the Bodega Bay area for a vacation. two boys were enlarging an existing tunnel in the side of a sand dune under a 40-foot cypress tree at Salmon Creek State Beach around 3:30 p.m. The tree fell over causing the tunnel to collapse, killing Jonathon Waldrup, 10, and partially burying his cousin\brother.

“The tree did fall over, but it is purely speculation if the wind or age or tunneling brought the tree down,” Bodega Bay Fire Chief Sean Grinnell said.

It took rescue personnel more than an hour to pull the 10-year-old out of six to eight feet of sand, and they were unable to resuscitate him.

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