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By Carlos Sadovi and Rosemary Regina Sobol Tribune reporters
5:38 p.m. CST, January 13, 2014
A 25-year-old Chicago graduate student lost her balance and fell from a cliff while taking pictures in San Diego Sunday and died instantly, authorities said Monday.
Anna Bachman, who was working on her master's degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, was visiting her sister and taking pictures on a cliffside bluff at sunset, when she lost her footing and plunged 100-150 feet onto massive sandstone rocks below, according to family and San Diego Police Officer Edward Zwibel.
"She was tragically posing for a picture when she backed up too far and lost her balance and fell down the cliff," said Zwibel. "It certainly is a sad scenario," Zwibel said.
Bachman was pursuing her degree in urban planning and policy, said Sam Hostettler, a spokesman for the University of Illinois at Chicago. She began her studies in the fall of 2012 and was enrolled to take 12 hours in the upcoming spring semester, said Hostettler.
"She was an excellent student," said Hostettler.
Her father, Richard Bachman said the California native had graduated from the University of California Berkeley and had previously volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for three years.
"Anna would put a hand out and help who ever needed it," said Bachman. "She had a great smile and great sense of humor."
He said his daughter had scheduled to spend winter break with her older sister, Gail, in San Diego and was looking forward to the trip and the warm San Diego temperatures as a break from the recent brutally cold Chicago winter. Bachman said his daughter's flight to San Diego kept getting delayed and she managed to get one of the last flights out of Chicago on Wednesday.
"It's not natural...you're not supposed to bury your children," said Bachman. "This is all so surreal."
He said Anna and Gail were very close to each other and were his only two children.
"Her sister was with her at the accident, it's equally hard for her sister," said Bachman. "They were great friends and they loved one another."
Bachman said while the master's program she was to take about two years she had planned to stay in the Chicago area after receiving her degree.
He said she had hoped to land a job with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. According to a bank spokeswoman, Bachman had served as an intern there since the summer and was expected back to work on Tuesday.
She would rave to her family about how well the city operated and looked forward to being able to work in city government to help people, her father recalled.
"She loved Chicago, she was planning to stay there," said Bachman. "It was a well-run city in her mind. She was learning to love (the weather)."
On Sunday, as Bachman was with her sister, police received 911 calls at 5:19 p.m. about a female who had fallen down the cliff onto the rocks below. Police, fire rescue units, and the lifeguard unit responded to the scene known as Sunset Cliffs, Zwibel said.
"There were a number of people around"’ who saw the incident and tried to help her, including someone who tried CPR, but she was dead on the scene, according to Zwibel. "She was then hoisted by the rescue personnel a short time later,'' Zwibel said.
Chain-link fences and cement blocks are erected, but visitors "can still get to the edge" if they really want to, he said.
"It’s a beautiful place and there's lots of cliff-side sunsets right here and it was right around that time of day as well."
Zwibel said there have been falls at that location before.
"We've had other incidents where potential suicidal persons or vehicles driving over the cliff because it's literally miles of sandstone bluff,"’ he said.
Multiple signs are also posted that read: "Beware of cliffs," "Warning" and "Unstable cliffs,'' the officer said.
"There's a lot of signage but people still want to get that photo.''
San Diego Fire Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque said he was notified of the incident about 5:40 p.m. Sunday night at 700 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, near Ladera Street.
Authorities recovered the woman's body on the cliffs after she fell, Luque said. She was not taken to a hospital and died on the scene, he said.
"If the tide was high, she would have fallen in the water," Luque said, adding that he did not know if it was high or low.
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