CA CA - Sunshine Borjas, 47, from Santa Rosa, left home 1:30pm to go hiking alone, vehicle found in parking lot at Bodega Head, 1 Oct 2025

[GraceG]

Santa Rosa resident here
"sneaker waves" claim a few lives every year at this part of the Sonoma Coast
It is a possibility
If she left Santa Rosa at 1:30 she would be at the trail in about 45 minutes
Sun sets at about 7pm
Many hours of daylight for her till then

Good thinking! My family had a small cabin at Cannon Beach when I was a kid, sneaker waves are a real risk in Oregon and California coastal waters. I remember running for my life once with my Mom when a huge one came in suddenly. It took out a car on the beach (you could drive on it back in the 60s) but no one was injured. I had just assumed she would have hiked the trail but she might have gone on down to one of the little pocket beaches.

 

[RedHaus]

Was also thinking #2b

[#2b: ...was with someone who... might have done something to SB.]

Hopefully LE is evaluating all possibilities and if available, can access SB's cell phone records to track her location at the park or elsewhere; and track any other cell phones at the park 10/1 PM.

IMO.

 

[KBlackRabbit]

Good thinking! My family had a small cabin at Cannon Beach when I was a kid, sneaker waves are a real risk in Oregon and California coastal waters. I remember running for my life once with my Mom when a huge one came in suddenly. It took out a car on the beach (you could drive on it back in the 60s) but no one was injured. I had just assumed she would have hiked the trail but she might have gone on down to one of the little pocket beaches.

Same here in Washington, we could drive on the beach in places.

Sneaker waves are definitely a risk, there’s a reason they say never turn your back on the ocean.

Those cliffs look beautiful but gnarly. If it was foggy it’s easy to see someone getting too close and not knowing it. Looking at my navigator there’s one beach access trail, everything else is along the top and well back from the edge. I hope she didn’t try to downclimb off trail.