Tragedy has struck a Grants Pass family after a man died and his son's friend was injured last weekend on the Southern Oregon Coast.
On Saturday, the Curry County Sheriff's Office received a 9-1-1 transfer call from the Brookings Police Department regarding a report of a male adult and three juveniles that had fallen at Secret Beach, about 13 miles north of Brookings.
The caller -- 28-year-old Jordan Acord -- reported that her husband, her two kids and a juvenile friend of the family had fallen over the cliff. Medical and fire units were rushed to the scene as well as the Oregon State Police and a rope rescue team. First responders quickly learned that the location was not at Secret Beach, but a small beach a short distance north.
Law enforcement located the Acord's vehicle at the Spruce Island Viewpoint and then found the trail they used. Two responders rappelled to the beach where they located 36-year-old Ryan Acord and 8-year-old Nolan Haptonstall. Acord was deceased from the fall to the rocky beach and Haptonstall was seriously injured.
A US Coast Guard helicopter arrived and lowered a rescue swimmer down to the beach and Haptonstall was airlifted to Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach where he was attended to and then flown by Air Reach to OHSU in Portland. The helicopter returned to the beach and airlifted the body of Ryan Acord to the Brookings Airport where he was released to Redwood Memorial.
Search and rescue personnel were able to rappel to the other two juveniles that had fallen down a steep embankment, but not over the edge of the cliff. Twelve-year-old Kade Acord was hanging onto a small tree that stopped him from falling the rest of the way and 8-year-old Liam Stidham was uninjured from the fall. Both were evaluated by medics and released to their mother.
Curry County Sheriff John Ward said from the time of the call to when all units cleared was about 5-1/2 hours. He said he spoke to Nolan Haptonstall's mother and she reported Nolan was seriously injured but he is expected to fully recover.
