ISLA VISTA - The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department says a 911 call came in at about 8:40 Friday morning about a body on the beach beneath the cliffs along the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista.
When the first emergency crews found the body they determined he was dead with head and face injuries consistent with a fall.
The Sheriff's Department says the unidentified victim is a white male in his early 20's, with short brown shaggy or curly hair, clean shaven, brown eyes, about 5'10" tall and weighing 190 pounds with no scars or tattoos.
The cliffs in Isla Vista run the length of Del Playa Drive, one of the more popular residential areas in the college town and the scene of crowded parties that often spill out into the street.
Every year efforts are made to warn students and others who come to Isla Vista about the dangers of getting too close to the edge of the cliffs.
Warning signs about the cliffs are posted in various locations along Del Playa Drive.
"They are right there, even if you aren't made aware, its common sense really", says UCSB student and Isla Vista resident Claudia Jette.
Several people have fallen to their death from the naturally eroding cliffs in Isla Vista over the past decade.
"The edge of the cliffs are kind of spooky", says UCSB student Taylor Lowery, "in some places there are no fences, and so you will see a path, and then the edge is like a foot away, and then there's just a patch of vegetation, at night you would probably would never see it unless you knew how close the edge was."
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department says criminal investigations personnel from the coroner's bureau, forensics bureau and detectives are trying to identify the young man and notify his family.
The Sheriff's Department says if the public believes they may know the identity of the victim or they are missing someone that fits the victim's description to call the Sheriff's office criminal investigation division at (805) 683-2724.
