Santa Rosa College Student Found Dead On Spring Break Trip Fell From Cliff

ISLA VISTA, Santa Barbara County (CBS SF) - A Santa Rosa teen who was found dead on a beach in Santa Barbara County after attending a spring break celebration suffered injuries consistent with a cliff fall, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

Giselle Ayala, 18, a freshman at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, was attending the Deltopia spring break party in Isla Vista, an unincorporated neighborhood near Goleta, last weekend.

Her friends told sheriff's investigators they last saw her around 11 p.m. Friday. They reported her missing at 7 p.m. Saturday.

By then her body had been found, and the sheriff's office was trying to identify the 5-feet-8-inch-tall woman, who was wearing a purple sundress over a black tank top and black lace-up boots.

She was found by a jogger around 8:20 a.m. Saturday in the water near the surf line west of Campus Point at the University of California at Santa Barbara, sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said.

Complete autopsy results aren't expected for another four to six weeks, but the sheriff's office said on its website Tuesday that Ayala suffered injuries consistent with a fall.

Ayala graduated from Santa Rosa High School last year. She was enrolled in the school's ArtQuest program.

The Deltopia party typically attracts between 15,000 and 18,000 people, Hoover said.

It formerly was called Floatopia and was held on the beach, but the beaches were closed several years ago because of rowdy behavior, and the party was relocated to Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista, Hoover said.

Isla Vista's population in 2010 was 23,000, and most residents are students at UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. Housing along Del Playa Drive is close to the cliffs above the beach.

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