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A man was found dead at Thornhill Broome Beach last Tuesday, March 29. The Ventura County medical examiner later ruled his death a suicide.
Around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) responded to a call about a possible hiker down in the Thornhill Broome Beach Area.
“Around 3:39 p.m., we were able to hike up and reach the patient, who was approximately 40 feet up the dune,” VCFD Capt. Mike Lindbery told The Malibu Times Tuesday afternoon. The man was found on the south side of the sand dune. Shortly after, it was determined that he was deceased.
“From my understanding, the [National] Park Service out there located a person that they believed fell from a trail,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Captain Todd Inglis told The Malibu Times. Inglis reported that the death was ruled a suspected suicide.
“Nothing appeared suspicious or criminal,” he said.
Deputy Medical Examiner Zeb Dunn with the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma and ruled a suicide.
“He was a 40-year-old male out of Thousand Oaks,” Dunn said. The medical examiner’s office’s policy is to not release the name of the deceased when the death is ruled a suicide.
The brother of the deceased, Kevin Johnson, reached out to the office of The Malibu Times via email to share some insight into his life. They were raised in the San Fernando Valley and, most recently, he lived in Thousand Oaks where he worked as an architect.
“My brother was a good man,” Johnson wrote. “Talented, kind and compassionate, but always incredibly intense. Everything he did and felt, he experienced to the core and put his entire being into. Even if he didn’t know how to help you, he tried.”
Johnson explained that both he and his brother have struggled with depression since childhood, as well as alcohol dependency. He reported that his brother got sober last year and had nine months of sobriety at the time of his death.
“It led me to believe he was doing better, but when he visited me the Saturday before he took his life, there was a pain in his eyes that ran deep,” Johnson shared. “At the time, I had no idea how deep or any clue that his visit was his way of saying goodbye.”
Johnson explained how he has approached his own sobriety.
“There are many roads to recovery, not just a 12-step based program,” he said. “Personally, I blend what I’ve learned in traditional therapy with harm-reduction modalities, 12-step and mindfulness-based recovery programs like the Kiloby Center in Rancho Mirage to deal with life one day at a time.”
He offered some advice for those who may be struggling with depression like his brother.
“You can’t let yourself get overwhelmed by life, no matter how bad it is,” he said. “Talk to a friend, call a hotline and if you’re in a total crisis, go to an emergency room and check yourself in for a three-day mental health stay. It’s not worth taking your life, no matter how bad it is.”
Since his brother’s death, Johnson has begun to work on developing an app that people with mental illness can have on their phone in case of an emergency.
“No matter how loud your voice inside your head is saying, ‘They’re better off without me,’ they’re not better off without you,” Johnson shared. “If you’re reading this, you are loved, no matter what you think you’ve done.”