WOMAN DIES AFTER FALLING FROM CLIFF IN PIONEERTOWN

A woman visiting Pioneertown fell off a cliff and died late Friday night. According to the county coroner’s office, Daena Kirk, 35, of Tehachapi, was with another man and woman on top of a hill about midnight when Kirk didn’t see a cliff and fell down the shale-covered slope. Her friends were not able to get a response from her. Paramedics from Morongo Basin Ambulance, Fire Station 38 in Pioneertown, and from Stations 41 and 42 in Yucca Valley and Yucca Mesa, and on board the sheriff’s helicopter all helped search on the ground and from the air, before finding the woman in an inaccessible area. A rescuer was lowered from the helicopter to assess the situation. Daena Kirk was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:18 a.m.