Woman’s memory honored nearly a year after being killed in San Francisco landslide
SAN FRANCISCO - It will be one year on Saturday since a 22-year-old woman from Oakley was killed in a landslide while walking on the beach at Fort Funston in San Francisco.
On Thursday, her parents honored her memory by thanking those who helped search for her.
David and Susan Scarlet made the journey to Fort Funston to be close to their daughter Kyra Sunshine Scarlet who lost her life a year ago. She was killed by a landslide as she walked on the beach with her dog, Iris.
"You can either be crippled by sorrow. What good does that do or you can make some sense of it," said Susan Scarlet, Kyra's mother.
The family is making sense of what happened February 22, 2019.
Kyra was at the beach to spend time with her dog and a friend. Suddenly, the cliff above them collapsed. She was buried under tons of soil and moist sand.
A frantic search followed, a massive effort by first responders and people passing by.
Her mom said after viewing KTVU's news footage, she saw a surfer dig out Kyra's dog and her friend and that he helped in the search for Kyra.
"I was so in awe. He stuck in mind for months and months," said Susan,"Let's find this surfer."
The family hopes to identify and meet the surfer to express their gratitude. Family members said Kyra's body was discovered a little over a month after the landslide in the same spot where she was last seen.
"If you go straight out from that just off the edge of that rock, that's where she was for 33 days," said Kyra's father David.
He said he had visited the area in the days before she was found,"I was standing on that rock. It kind of scares me now. The tide was coming in. Had I looked down, I might have been the one who found her."
The couple said they find comfort in the place Kyra loved. On this day, they pointed to dolphins they spotted and what they described as a sun rainbow peaking out from the clouds.
"I feel her here. My heart longs to be here," said Susan,"Where I can just come and look at the beautiful ocean and remember a beautiful life."
Kyra's family plans to celebrate her life by flying kites and playing on the beach at Fort Funston Saturday. They're inviting everyone who tried to help save her life to join them particularly at 2:38 in the afternoon, the time of the collapse one year ago.