Man falls to death at Phoenix mountain preserve

A 19-year-old man fell to his death Monday in a rocky Phoenix mountain preserve after drinking and sneaking into the park with a friend.

Authorities found the man's body more than 75 feet below the spot he climbed to from a hillside near the parking lot of a Phoenix firefighter union hall on Dunlap Avenue east of 14th Street.

Paul Andreas was last seen alive between midnight and 2:30 a.m., before his 17-year-old friend passed out in the corner of the North Mountain Preserve, police said.

When the 17-year-old awoke, he searched for his friend and later found his body on the rocks below. The teen called police around 6:30 a.m. and led investigators to a sheer cliff where they hung out, Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.

The death investigation is ongoing this week. Alcohol is considered a factor in Andreas' fatal fall.

"They were in the park sometime around midnight and they had been drinking," said Thompson, adding that the teens entered the section of the preserve after it closed to the public at sunset.

The United Phoenix Firefighters Association's Mountain Preserve Reception and Conference Center, where Dunlap dead-ends at the mountain, offers easy access to the preserve. There is little more than a curb and warning sign to prevent people from climbing the steep rocks.

Employees at the banquet hall, which hosts weddings and retirement parties, said trespassing teens are common.