Man plummets to his death after falling from branch on cliff while posing for picture

A man has plummeted to his death after climbing a tree to pose for a picture before falling off of a cliff and into the ocean.

The incident occurred on Sept. 27 at approximately 1:48 p.m. when Oregon State Police Troopers received a call from the Devil’s Cauldron Trail in Oswald West State Park located in Tillamook County, Oregon, to reports that a man had fallen from a cliff into the Pacific Ocean.

According to authorities, Steven Gastelum, 43, of Seaside, Oregon, was walking with a friend down the Devil’s Cauldron trail before stopping to take a picture at a cliff side viewpoint.

Gastelum then reportedly climbed a tree on the cliff’s edge so that he could pose for a picture when the limb on the tree snapped causing him to plummet from the cliff approximately 100 feet into the ocean below.

“U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and Nehalem Bay Fire Department jet skis assisted in locating Gastelum and bringing him to shore,” said the Oregon State Police in a statement released to the media.

After authorities located the victim, Gastelum was then transported to Tillamook Regional Care Center by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.

This is also not the first death that has occurred on the Devil’s Cauldron Trail in Oswald West State Park.

In September 2017, Joe Lescene, 51, had been hiking with his wife in Oswald West State Park when it was reported that the Canadian man and father of two lost his footing on the bluff overlooking Devil's Cauldron and fell more than 800 feet into the ocean below, according to a CBC report. His body was discovered when it washed ashore more than a week after the incident at Short Sands Beach.