UPDATE: Deception Pass Bridge jumper’s body still missing

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The search for the body of a man who jumped off Deception Pass Bridge Wednesday morning has been called off.

Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office said the search in the waters surrounding Deception Pass has involved many boats from a number of agencies, but they came up with nothing. After two days of scouring the water and beaches, searchers called off the effort.

A number of people driving over Deception Pass Bridge at about 9 o’clock in the rainy and windy morning saw a man with a blue jacket leap off the bridge. The horrified witnesses got out of their cars and trucks and looked over the bridge to see the man float and then sink in the swirling waters below.

“He walked up the bridge and put one leg over and then the other and went over,” Detective Sgt. Mike Beech said. “There was no hesitation.”

A boat from Cornet Bay was at the pass just minutes after the man disappeared under the water, but the body was still lost. Wallace said there’s been a number of cases in which bodies were never recovered from the fast-moving currents and eddies of Deception Pass.

Beech said he’s in the process confirming the identify of the man, but it may be awhile before he releases a name. A car with a wallet and cell phone belonging to a Whidbey Island man were left in the parking lot of the bridge.

Deception Pass Bridge has been the site of numerous suicides over the years.

Contact Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360.675.6611 ext. 5056.

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