Drowning victim ID'd as 38-year-old Tacoma man

A 38-year-old man who died Friday in Northern California while trying to rescue his nephew from a rogue wave has been identified as Jeffrey Russell of Tacoma.

The 8-year-old boy, Joseph Bailey of Olalla, Kitsap County, is presumed dead but his body has not yet been recovered, said Kale Bowling-Schaff, a ranger at Redwood National Park.

A search for the boy by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department was to end last night.

The boy, his uncle and seven other family members were returning from a holiday visit to California and stopped to take a break on a long sandy beach off Highway 101 called Freshwater Spit, about 30 miles north of Eureka.

Eight of the nine were playing by the water's edge when a large wave washed over them.

The boy's mother had him in her hand after the wave hit but when a second large wave swept over them, he was taken out to sea, officials said.

The other family members retreated from the water but the boy's uncle, who was at the car when the wave hit, ran in after him.

He failed to reach the boy and his body was found by a search-and-rescue team about an hour later at 1 p.m.

Rogue waves are not unusual on the Northern California coast during the winter-storm season, Bowling-Schaff said. The ocean appears calm but then a wave twice its regular size comes without warning.

"The sun was out and it looked like an inviting place to be," she said. "But it is quite dangerous by the surf in the wintertime."