Jonah Alexander Edwards: Man ends life by jumping off a Disneyland parking structure, third fatality in a year
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A man jumped to his death off a Disneyland parking structure on Wednesday night, November 15, police said. At around 9.30 pm, emergency responders responded to reports of a man who jumped from the Pixar Pals parking structure at the Disneyland resort, Anaheim Police spokesperson Sgt Jon McClintock said in a statement.
The incident is being investigated as suicide, McClintock said. The Orange County Coroner’s Office responded and will lead the investigation into the man's death. According to the reports of The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the victim has been identified as Jonah Alexander Edwards, 24.
"All guests coming off trams were being directed to Mickey and Friends parking lot", Reddit user Alythesta, 77, wrote on Wednesday night, November 15.
Jonah Alexander Edwards' death marks the third similar fatality at the California theme park
In February, an Arizona woman named Marney Schoenfeld, 46, took her life by jumping from the Mickey and Friends structure.
Randy Schoenfeld, the victim's husband, told The Mercury News that her death was "excruciating." "She was a loving mother to her daughter, Sydney," he told the outlet at the time.
Just two months before the incident, a man who was facing child endangerment charges, Chris Christensen, died after jumping from the same building in December 2022. The 51-year-old was facing charges of child abuse and endangerment and battery, according to Orange County court records.
In a letter he posted on Facebook before he died, he laid the blame at the feet of his wife and mother of his stepchildren, Marlena, claiming that during an altercation last month her 'anger got the best of her' and she called the police with allegedly false claims of abuse.
Six people died by suicide at Disneyland since 2010
Since 2010, a total of six people have taken their lives by jumping from parking structures at Disneyland. The 5,500 Pixar Pals garage has been in operation since 2019 while the Mickey and Friends garage has been open since 2000. The latter is one of the largest parking structures in the world with 10,000 spaces.
Around two percent of all suicide deaths in the United States involve jumping or falling. About 49,500 people took their own lives in 2022 in the US, the highest number ever. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year, but available data suggests suicides are more common in the US than at any time since the dawn of World War II.