SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A 23-year-old parolee was back behind bars Thursday for allegedly attacking his wife during an argument at Coronado Beach, beating her and attempting to throw her into the ocean and bury her alive in the sand.

The woman made a 911 call shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday to report that her husband, Jose Luis Mares III of Moreno Valley, had just tried to kill her, according to the Coronado Police Department.

Officers arrived to find Mares gone and his injured wife on a sidewalk in the 900 block of Ocean Boulevard. Medics took her to a San Diego hospital for treatment of serious trauma.

The victim told investigators her husband had become enraged during a quarrel at the Coronado waterfront, assaulting her, trying to drag her into the surf and then took her near a lifeguard tower and tried burying her in the sand.

“She said there was a hole in the ground and the hole had previously been there from probably kids digging it during the day. But during the struggle, she said he threw her in that hole when he began putting sand on top of her,” said Detective Ryan Brennan with the Coronado Police Department.

The victim told police her husband repeatedly kicked her — then stopped and ran off.

“We don’t know what scared him away. Perhaps it was someone walking by,” Brennan said.

Police searched the neighborhood, finding Mares a short time later in the backyard of a home on Alameda Boulevard, police said.

Mares was booked into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, assault causing great bodily injury, domestic violence, false imprisonment and violating terms of his parole. He was being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for March 5.

According to the California Department of Corrections, Mares was a parolee previously convicted for carjacking and burglary.

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