The National Park Service is asking for help from anyone who was in the area when a New Jersey man fell to his death this week while trying to take a picture of a sunset at Acadia National Park.
The park issued a brief statement Friday indicating that it is still looking into the death of 68-year-old Mark Simon of Glen Ridge, New Jersey. His death Monday evening was believed to be accidental, but the case has not been closed.
“If you were in the area between 7 and 9 p.m. please call 207-288-8791,” Friday’s statement said.
John Kelly, an Acadia spokesman, said Friday that the investigation has not changed but officials had neglected earlier in the week to put out a call for any witnesses.
“Because it happened in an area of the park that is popular, it’s certainly possible that somebody might have seen something,” Kelly said, adding that park investigators have been in contact with both Maine State Police and law enforcement officials in New Jersey, where Simon lived.
Simon fell about 40 feet from a bluff between Sand Beach and Thunder Hole, a popular spot in the park on Mount Desert Island. He and his wife, who have a summer home in Southwest Harbor, were driving on the Park Loop Road in Acadia when they stopped to photograph the sunset.
Park officials said this week that Simon left the vehicle to find a good spot to take a photo while his wife stayed behind.
When Simon didn’t return after the sun had set, his wife flagged down a park ranger.
Rangers found the man’s backpack on the bluff and then located his body at the bottom near the water’s edge. Park officials contacted the Coast Guard to help recover the body.
The cause of Simon’s death has not been released. Mark Belserene, a spokesman for the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said Friday that an autopsy has been completed but investigators are waiting for lab results before releasing any information.
According to an obituary published Friday in The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, Simon was a prosecutor in Essex County for many years and also worked as a part-time public defender after he retired.
He and his wife, Linda, were married for 42 years and had been spending summers in Southwest Harbor since the early 1970s. The obituary said Simon was an avid photographer and lover of nature. He and his wife have an adult daughter.
No one answered the phone Friday at a number listed for Mark and Linda Simon in New Jersey.
The last fatal fall at Acadia, according to Kelly, was in 2012, when Shirley Ladd, a 22-year-old University of Maine student from Barnstead, New Hampshire, slipped and fell while climbing with a friend on the Precipice Trail, a popular hike.
Kelly said park visitors should always plan ahead when traversing the park and should always wear proper footwear.
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