Bay Area Woman Dies In Tragic Slip From Waterfall Near Tahoe

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Donations were pouring in Monday to support the children of a Bay Area woman who died in a tragic incident Friday at a waterfall near South Lake Tahoe. Dina Stephanie Espinosa, 35, was sitting in one of the pools of water at Eagle Falls, just above Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay, when she reached for a branch and slipped, according to a sergeant for the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.

"Dina ... was swept away in the very fast-moving waters over the waterfall," said sheriff's Sgt. Anthony Prencipe.

Numerous rescue personnel with the sheriff's dive and search-and-rescue teams were immediately deployed to the area, the sergeant said.

"Unfortunately, when Dina was located she was found deceased," Prencipe said.

Officials with California State Parks and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office are investigating the death, he said.

Nick Martinez, of Martinez, said on GoFundMe that Eagle Falls was an area his sister Dina "Stephanie" Espinosa, a Benicia resident who owned a spa, "visited often and found serenity in."

As of Monday afternoon, more than $5,000 had been donated toward his GoFundMe campaign, the goal of which is $20,000. In addition to leaving behind two sons, Espinosa had two brothers and four sisters, Martinez wrote on Gofundme.com/stephanie-espinosa.

"She was a mother figure to all her siblings and was raising one of her youngest sisters as she had done with several other siblings," Martinez wrote. "... We are hoping to raise funds to help the kids with their schooling and essential needs as there will be many adjustments and obstacles in the absence of their mother. Her children were her world and we want to try and give them everything that she would have."

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