Crime & Safety

Community Mourns Death of Los Gatos Hiker

Bryan Leeder attended Bonny Doon Elementary School in the Santa Cruz Mountains and was well known and loved in the tight-knit community.

Teachers at Bonny Doon Elementary School in Santa Cruz are mourning the who fell down the face of Half Dome Monday, Aug. 22.

"We're shocked and saddened," said Cyndy Cote, assistant to the superintendent at Bonny Doon Elementary School, about the death of Ryan Leeder, whom authorities say fell to his death after climbing up the cables on the peak’s back side.

At approximately 6:30 p.m., the Yosemite Emergency Communication Center received a report of a person falling off the face of the mountain, but due to the late hour, rangers were unable to initiate search efforts, said Yosemite National Parks spokesman Scott Gediman.

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On Aug. 23, Leeder's body, which fell approximately 2,500 feet, was spotted at about 2 p.m. via helicopter and rangers recovered it, transporting it to Yosemite Valley to start the investigation into what happened. 

Gediman said a group of rock climbers saw a man falling and alerted park officials. On Wednesday, Aug. 24, authorities with the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office identified Leeder.  

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"This is the third child that we've lost just recently," Cote said.

The loss is difficult for the close-knit mountainous community of Bonny Doon with about 2,500 people who knew Leeder, 23, as well and his parents, Larry and Joyce Leeder, who now live in Los Gatos, Cote said.

The school, with an enrollment of 126 students, saw Leeder grow up as a young child since he attended the small campus as a kindergartener through sixth grade, said Cote, who has worked at the school for 22 years.

Cote remembered Leeder as an interesting and happy child who loved fossils and rocks and was always playful and surrounded by friends. "He was a good student," she added.

Bonny Doon Elementary officials said they believed Leeder attended Santa Cruz High School, but officials there wouldn't confirm nor deny whether he was one of their students.

Cote said the last time she saw Leeder was when he came to the school to visit now-retired "favorite" sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Janie Crabb, whom he had a close connection with. "He adored her," Cote said. 

Gediman said the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office would be investigating Leeder's cause of death and the coroner's office would conduct an autopsy.

"We're not ruling anything out," he said when asked if Leeder committed suicide. "The county will release the cause of death ... but people have [committed suicide] after reaching the summit in the past."

"When you get to the top of Half Dome, it's a sheer drop," he said. "Our park rangers spoke to the family. They were informed and they came up here." 

On average, Yosemite National Park has between 12 and 15 deaths a year, but this year, the park has seen 17 fatalities. Gediman said five of the 17 deaths this year are from natural causes and the rest are accidental, meaning everything from drownings over Vernal Fall, Hetch Hechty Reservoir, to falls to suicides. The latter form of death can't be determined by rangers and only by sheriff's deputies, Gediman said.

On the Mercury News obituary page for Leeder, more than 20 people had left messages of condolences to Leeder's parents. 

The Mercury News quoted Leeder's stepbrother, Zack Belanger, as saying he had been recently released from Santa Cruz County jail, was trying to get his life back together, but battled mental illness.

Leeder is said to have been been arrested in May, accused of brandishing a knife at a man playing basketball at a local middle school, according to the Mercury News.

Sheriff's deputies at the time said Leeder was acting strangely as he walked up to the group, accused them of stealing his wallet, then pointed a knife toward them in a threatening way, the Mercury News reported.


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