PORT TOWNSEND — Police on Monday identified the woman whose body was found part of the way down a bluff at North Beach as Kristine Kay Dishong, 59, who lived close to where she fell to her death.
The authorities said they consider the death accidental, and no autopsy is planned.
The body was found by a passer-by Saturday morning between 50 feet and 70 feet above the beach on the “End of the World” bluff at now-closed Elmira Street Park.
There is no indication of suspicious circumstances or foul play, and it is believed that Dishong was alone on the bluff when she fell over the edge.
The circumstances of why she fell off the bluff remain under investigation but may never be fully known because nobody else was present at the time, police said Monday.
Investigators have learned that Dishong was experiencing some medical issues, they added.
The site is where a major slide at the view spot northwest of downtown Port Townsend known as End of the World collapsed to the beach in mid-October.
The woman’s body was located in the remnants of that slide but was not related to the slide itself, said Michael Evans, Port Townsend deputy police chief.
The body was not retrieved until dusk Saturday due to high tides, rough seas and heavy winds, according to police.
A recovery effort was first attempted by a sheriff’s boat, but the seas were too rough.
The October slide made it too dangerous for the volunteer Jefferson County Search and Rescue team to rappel down the bluff, Evans said.
There has been no reason to believe that the bluff, although unstable lately, gave way and collapsed causing Dishong to fall, police said.
The city-owned park at the end of Elmira Street will remain closed indefinitely.
Dishong’s body was taken to Kosec Funeral Home in Port Townsend, where services are pending.