Investigators in California say a Calgary man is dead and his five-year-old daughter is missing after the pair was 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.
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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.