A woman who drowned on Labor Day while swimming in the ocean at Palm Beach State Park outside of Watsonville was 35-year-old Sabrina Garcia, according to the Monterey County coroner's office.
At about 10 a.m. Monday, a California Department of Parks and Recreation ranger received word of a possible drowning at the park south of Sunset State Beach, supervising park ranger Bill Wolcott said.
The ranger responded and attempted to provide emergency care to the victim, as did emergency paramedics who arrived on scene, but the woman was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to Wolcott.
The woman, later identified as Garcia, a Watsonville resident, had been swimming in the ocean, but authorities are not sure what happened to her or whether something like a rip tide might have been a factor, Wolcott said.
"There is no way to gauge," Wolcott said. "We don't have any witness statements aside from seeing her laying in the water."
Lifeguards were not assigned to begin a shift on the beach Monday until 11 a.m., he said.
