By JESSIE STENSLAND

Staff reporter

A 28-year-old Oak Harbor woman died Friday after jumping off of Deception Pass bridge in an apparent suicide.

Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office said Dorinda Papp drove to the bridge at about 5:30 p.m. with a female friend who didn’t have any idea of her intentions.

“She told her friend she would be right back,” Wallace said.

Instead, Papp leaped off the bridge, an act that was witnessed by at least two people.

Wallace said Papp landed in the water near a fishing boat. The two people in the boat pulled her in and found that she was still alive. Since they didn’t know CPR, they picked up a couple of other people who were fishing ashore. Those individuals performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the young woman while the boat took her to Cornet Bay, where an ambulance was waiting.

Wallace said the ambulance crew transported Papp to Island Hospital in Anacortes, where she later died.

Wallace said Papp didn’t leave a suicide note, so investigators aren’t sure about her motivations. She had, however, made two previous suicide attempts in the last six months, including one time she was contacted by law enforcement at the bridge.

This was the second time in two weeks that someone has committed suicide at the scenic pass. On July 18, 79-year-old Arvell Casper of Edmonds died after jumping off the bridge.