First hand account of Sunset Beach bomb discovery<\/p>\n
Published 11:54 am Thursday, September 18, 2025<\/p>\n
Mother and 2-year-old child were first to find it, mom said<\/p>\n
A little after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Kayla Winkelhake and her 2-year-old son traveled to Sunset Beach to enjoy a late-summer day \u2014 what came next was a bomb discovery that set the entire region on edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a 2-year-old child, and we were on our way to the beach \u2026 we always just stop and use the restroom before going out to the beach,\u201d Winkelhake said. \u201cTuesday (was) 87 and sunny, and we\u2019re just thinking, \u2018it\u2019s a beautiful day,\u2019 and we walk to the bathroom, and (my son) \u2026 starts to open the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unbeknownst to Whinkelhake at the time, attached to the door was an explosive device.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe noticed that something was up at the door, and he was like, \u2018what?\u2019 And so I just picked him up and noticed there was a backpack in there, and I\u2019m like, that doesn\u2019t really look normal. So we used the other bathroom,\u201d Winkelhake said.<\/p>\n
According to Winkelhake, inside the restroom was a backpack tied to the door with shoelaces; opening the door would have pulled the laces and ostensibly triggered what was inside.<\/p>\n
Upon leaving the rest area, Winkelhake saw and notified a park ranger about the backpack, then enjoyed a day at the beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to the beach and spent the day there. And when we came out, state troopers just had it all blocked off with caution tape,\u201d Winkelhake said. It was not until the next morning when she learned from news reports that the contents of the backpack contained a bomb.<\/p>\n
According to officials, Oregon State park staff called in Oregon State Police after the backpack was found by the ranger. The device was defused by a bomb squad including experts from OSP and the Salem Police Department. The OSP later said the case is still open and they are hoping that anyone with information will call 1(800) 442-0776 and reference case number SP25406805.<\/p>\n
Since learning of the bomb, Winkelhake said her mind has been full of questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just keep thinking that we could have been blown up,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know anything about it. Was it a tiny bomb that wasn\u2019t going to go off? Was it big?<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally just keep thinking that we could have been blown up. I think if I was walking first, I would have just opened the door while I was talking to him. But, because he was going first, I was just following him, and he stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winkelhake said she has reached out to the park ranger, and hopes to speak with him regarding the incident. She said she has not been contacted by other law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just kind of wild to think about,\u201d Winklehake said. \u201cNo one should ever, anywhere, have to worry about a bomb. \u2026 But to think \u2014 a rural toilet, on the Oregon coast, on a Tuesday.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First hand account of Sunset Beach bomb discovery Published 11:54 am Thursday, September 18, 2025 By MATHIAS LEHMAN-WINTERS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10303,4,450,451,3,1583,100139,452,453],"class_list":["post-166011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-bomb","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-police","tag-sunset-beach","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}