Modesto resident killed when pickup goes over cliff in Mendocino County
A Modesto woman was killed over the weekend when her car went off Highway 1 and down a cliff in Mendocino County, the California Highway Patrol reported. The coroner’s office in that county confirmed the victim’s identity as Deanna Hestnas, 49.
A news release from the Ukiah-area CHP office says officers responded about 1:15 p.m. Saturday to the report of a vehicle over a cliff on the Shoreline Highway south of Elk.
The release says Hestnas, in a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado, went off the cliff “while transitioning from park to drive, while initially parked on the southbound shoulder of SR-1.” It says the vehicle rolled down a steeply graded cliff before coming to rest on a remote beach below. Hestnas apparently was dead when responders reached the wreckage.
It is not clear when the incident actually occurred. CHP Modesto office spokesman Officer Thomas Olsen said he read the face page, or the preliminary summary, of the crash and it appears Hestnas may have been backing up in the dark when she went over the side.
Hestnas was a mother and small-business owner. She had been CEO of Tile Impressions, a tile and stone business in Modesto. Her bio on the company site says construction was her passion. She grew up in Minnesota as the daughter of a general contractor and went to work with him from the age of 12.
According to a friend, Hestnas has most recently been an interior designer.
