PORTLAND — The body of a free-spirited 18-year-old who loved the Oregon Coast was found near Cape Kiwanda, authorities said Friday.
Elise “Ellie” Dickey of Corvallis loved exploring the area, climbing the cliffs and wading in the surf, her parents told The Oregonian.
“It was one of her favorite places,” said Dickey’s mother, Jennifer Wright. “She was adventurous. As beautiful as it is, it is also dangerous.”
“We were all 18 once,” Wright added.
Dickey’s death was ruled a drowning by the medical examiner in Tillamook County.
The body of her boyfriend, 22-year-old Sean Yamaguchi, was found near McPhillips Beach north of Cape Kiwanda on Monday. His death was also ruled a drowning.
The two had taken a trip to the coast on the afternoon of July 25. They were reported missing four days later.
Dickey’s Toyota pickup truck was found at the north end of the beach after the sheriff’s office received a complaint on July 28 that it had been parked there for several days.
Dickey loved to draw, paint and sculpt, her family said. She also had an interest in taxidermy and mortuary science.
“She had a real strong sense of herself and who she was,” Wright said.
As a child, Dickey occasionally examined skin and brain tissue at the pathology lab where Wright worked.
The teen was planning to enroll at Linn-Benton Community College in the fall. Her mother’s gift for her 18th birthday began a collection of rats, including a hairless one Dickey named Baby Raisin.
She also loved the outdoors and pushing her physical limits.
“I don’t think she was reckless,” said her father, Nathan Dickey. “She just wasn’t scared.”
“She would climb a tree, and we would say, “Come down, Ellie,” and she would just go higher and wave at us,” said Lynn Kanaya, Dickey’s grandmother.
“She would say, “I’m here, world. I’m free. Let’s see what’s in store for me.”
