June 07, 2016
Acadia National Park /Facebook
Acadia National Park in Mount Desert Island, Maine.
A New Jersey man fell 40 feet to his death Monday night while photographing the sunset at Maine's Acadia National Park, officials announced on Tuesday.
Acadia spokesman John Kelly told the Bangor Daily News that 68-year-old Mark Simon, of Glen Ridge, Essex County, fell from a seaside cliff near Thunder Hole after venturing onto the rocks to take photographs. Simon was known to spend summers on Mount Desert Island in Maine's Southwest Harbor.
According to Kelly, Simon's wife sat in the couple's car in a nearby parking lot while he headed out to the shore to take photos just after 7 p.m. By 9:30 p.m., when Simon didn't return, his wife flagged down a park ranger to notify him that her husband was missing.
Rangers found Simon's backpack at the top of the cliff around 10 p.m. and spotted him lying unresponsive at the bottom of the 40-foot drop. The U.S. Coast Guard and Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue later retrieved Simon's body, which had been pulled offshore by the tide, at about 11:30 p.m.
The state medical examiner in Augusta will conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. Kelly said falls are the most common cause of injury at Acadia, though they are usually not fatal. This is the first fatal fall at the park since a University of Maine student fell off another trail in 2012. Earlier this year, a hiker was found dead after a search that lasted several weeks.
Park officials said that while Simon's death appears to have been accidental, an investigation is underway.
