INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Police in Independence are investigating the death of a 28-year-old man who apparently fell from a cliff on Sunday.
According to the Independence Police Department, the family of Donel Clayton contacted first responders at 11:25 a.m. to report that they spotted his body at the bottom of a cliff beneath the Rockside Road bridge just east of Brecksville Road.
Police say search and rescue teams recovered Clayton, who had sustained serious injuries. He was taken by Metro Life Flight to MetroHealth Medical Center, but was pronounced dead on the way, according to the Independence Police Department's incident report.
A spokesperson for the city of Independence says that preliminary findings indicate the incident was accidental and no foul play is suspected. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office determined that the cause of Clayton's death was "environmental hypothermia."
Body camera footage released by the city of Independence shows that an officer arrived at the scene near the PNC Bank on Brecksville Road at around 11:27 a.m. The officer attempts to find out information from Clayton's family.
"How did he (Donel) get down here?" the officer asked. "He was walking and he slid down," one of the family members cried out in response.
The officer spots Clayton below the cliff and informs dispatch that rescuers will need "stretchers and ropes to get down here and repel." He also notes that Clayton is sitting up and moving, but also bleeding.
Police later interviewed a friend of Clayton, who provided details of some of the final hours of the 28-year-old's life in a statement to officers. Clayton had apparently gone to the friend's house in Garfield Heights for a party on Saturday night, but left on foot after being "highly intoxicated" and "screaming outside causing an annoyance to neighbors," who alerted police.
The friend told police that he put Clayton in his car and was planning to drive him to his parents' home in Oakwood Village. While en route, the two apparently had an argument and pulled into the McDonalds in Independence on Rockside Road at around 2:20 a.m., according to surveillance video camera. While at the parking lot, the friend told police that Clayton got out of the vehicle and ran toward the wooded area near PNC Bank.
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