Young Hikers Missing in Joshua Tree Since Thursday [7/27/17]

[Myth]

I've seen rangers patrolling the roads early in the morning - my guess would be to nab anyone camping illegally off of a day-use trailhead. I'm not sure that they really do anything much about vehicles parked that way, even though the Park's web page states that vehicles parked overnight at trailheads other than backcountry boards is cause for concern: https://www.nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/bcboards.htm

There is no fee for camping in the backcountry at Joshua Tree National Park. However, you are required to park and register at a backcountry registration board. An unregistered vehicle or a vehicle left overnight somewhere other than at a backcountry board is a cause for concern about the safety of the vehicle’s occupants. It is also subject to citation and towing.

JT is my favorite National Park. I know it well, and it feels comfortable and friendly to me. Maybe it will claim me someday, if I become too comfortable with it.

Like OtherHand said, Maze Loop is not a feasible parking spot for heading all the way out to Smith Water Canyon. SWC is most easily accessible by driving in on the Covington Flats road, and the Boy Scout backcountry board, the Quail Springs picnic area, or a handful of informal pullouts along the main drag all offer better access than Maze Loop.

The Smith Water ping is really odd. I would like to know more about the configuration of cell towers and their capabilities. It's been many, many moons since I worked with that stuff ( I was a programmer on a system that worked with tracking devices that used cell tower pings, many moons ago ) but getting location from cell pings is not an exact science. Capabilities are no doubt better now that they were in the late 90's, but tower jumps when trying to triangulate a position was one way you could register a ping way off from where the device was located. Still, physics is physics, and for something like the Ewasko ping that gives a hard upper limit on the distance. I just find it odd that two pings from Smith Water have not turned up anything. Not in the Ewasko case, and from what we glean by reading news reports, not in this case either.

I was also thinking about the same thing as you, OtherHand - four missing persons. I first thought about it when Rodriguez went missing - what is it about that area of JT? It is not even all that remote. If you want to get lost in JT, head to the Pinto Basin or the southern parts of the Park. But now we have potentially four people waiting to be found, in this area.

cynthia23 - I found a link to a story describing a woman's skeletal remains found in the Santa Rosas years ago, but it doesn't match the description of your story: http://vault.sierraclub.org/sierra/200901/lost.aspx

I'm not sure what to think about this case. I find the known facts don't quite add up. But I've also seen many things that looked fishy have perfectly normal explanations. And JT is full of nooks and crannies.

I wish the authorities were more cooperative in these cases. I understand the desire to not have the masses tramp all over possible scents, clues or footprints, but I also think that, for example, being open about where searchers have been could help coordinate a greater effort. In the end the goal is to find missing people, right?

[cynthia23]

Thank you for that link, Myth. As it happens I know the writer, Ann Japenga--a wonderful chronicler of our local natural and human histories. I had read that story of hers some time ago. It's not the one I'm thinking of, however. In the article I read, it specified that it was a woman who'd gone off for a day horseback ride, and that her leg was badly broken. I guess there's a lot of rock crevices out there, holding more than a few bodies.

I agree with you that it's strange that all these disappearances have occurred in this particular area of JTNP. I wish the authorities would be more transparent about what is going on. The odd thing is that our local news media seems oblivious or unaware of how odd these circumstances are, and don't seem to be asking any real questions.

[Ed]

A lot of interesting stuff here, my thanks to people for sharing their thoughts. But I keep bumping up against a mental wall: it is a lot easier to explain the disappearance of one person than two.

[Wildhorse]

At this point, I think we really can't have much confidence that this story, whatever it may be, ended in the park.

[bretpct]

The families are now offering a reward for info leading to finding them alive.

The families of Joseph Orbeso, a 21-year-old from Lakewood, and Rachel Nguyen, a 20-year-old from Westminster, who disappeared more than a month ago in Joshua Tree National Park, plan to announce a $10,000 reward Saturday for information leading to the couple’s safe return.

“The families of the missing pair have asked the public to engage in helping their recovery,” Jennie Albrinck, a spokeswoman for Joshua Tree, said in a statement. “It is their hope that the missing party may have left on their own accord and are alive somewhere outside the park.”

Family members plan to discuss the reward at a press conference at Maze Loop, a popular trailhead where the vehicle Orbeso and Nguyen used and fresh footprints were found by searchers July 28. The couple entered Joshua Tree the previous day, park officials have said.

“We are asking for the public’s help if they have been seen in the park, but mostly if possible out of the park,” Gilbert Orbeso, who is Joseph Orbeso’s father, said via a Facebook message. “Still no clues to their whereabouts.”

Extensive searches at Joshua Tree have been conducted by the couple’s families, National Park Service personnel and numerous law enforcement agencies.

There was reported to be a press conference officially announcing the reward today at 10 A.M., but I haven't found any articles about it yet.

Edit: An article on The Desert Sun has been updated since the press conference.

Some interesting excerpts:

...Thousands of hours of searching by air and ground have turned up no clues as to what has happened to the two, park superintendent David Smith said.

“We will continue to do limited search inside the park … but at this point we have definitely moved from the search effort to the recovery effort, which means we believe they perished somewhere inside the park,” Smith told the small group of media, the Orbeso family and some hikers who attended the 20-minute press conference.

“There’s a small, small chance they are somewhere outside of the park,” Smith said. “The families and many of us are pinning our hopes on that.”...

...“There are many inviting side canyons you can explore as you are hiking through there. There are boulder formations you go through when you are inside the maze,” he said.

“We work hard to maintain it so there is a discernable trail … and mark it along the way so people stay on the trail. But desert hiking … is a challenge and if you do go off trail or you do go down a side canyon, we don’t mark every rock and every side canyon,” Smith said...

...One ping was received from Joseph Orbeso’s phone inside the park, and that was recorded at about 4 p.m. July 27.

“Somewhere within 10 miles of where that ping was is where that cell phone was,” Smith said, adding people should not count on their cell phones helping them if they should get lost...

[OtherHand]

“Somewhere within 10 miles of where that ping was is where that cell phone was,” Smith said, adding people should not count on their cell phones helping them if they should get lost...

I read that and thought it the damnedest odd statement. But Smith is the park Super, so he either knows what he's saying or skilled enough to know how to not say something while sounding like he is. There's no way a cell ping has a 10 mile margin of error. Curious they didn't mention where the ping was and sad that the media present at the press conference didn't think enough to ask.

[cynthia23]

OMG can this get any weirder?? What on earth do the families mean by offering a reward and saying they think there's a chance the couple are alive? If they think there's a chance they may have been kidnapped, why not plainly say so?? And what does the NPS guy mean with this 'ten mile radius' statement? I agree with you OtherHand, that seems to have been a real CYA statement, designed to fit any and all potential theories. And I also agree, media is totally not doing their job--has none of them noticed the multiple oddities here??

[cynthia23]

Edit--I just looked at the link more attentively--I see now that the family is proposing that the couple 'left the park on their own'??? It would help if they offered some rationale for why these two people would stage their own disappearance, but perhaps there isn't any at all, and it's just desperate thinking on the part of distraught parents. I still don't understand why no one ever mentions the possibility of kidnapping--while improbable, it's surely more plausible than two people staging an elaborate disappearance for no particular reason. Perhaps they are trying to maintain unity between the two families and so for that reason can't mention an actual possible reason for a staged disappearance, namely a murder of one party by the other. BTW thank you BretPCT for finding and posting this new odd development.

[Wildhorse]

It hurts to even think about the trauma of the families. I think especially about Joseph's father searching in the heat and coming home at the end of so many days with nothing. I think their hope that their children are yet alive outside of the park is not a vain hope. They are showing the heroic courage of fathers and mothers, coupled with a humble hope of people who are sad and down but still faithful parents.

I agree with Otherhand. The NPS is pathetic here.

The NPS have no basis for saying that the hikers perished in the park, and yet they are arrogantly saying that is what happened. I suspect they just want to shift their attention and are rationalizing that move. They are effectively putting down and dismissing the hope of the parents.

And I agree with Cynthia that the media is not doing a good job. They are just sensationalists.

The parents are doing the right thing and all they can do. They have my full heart and tears.

[Perry]

According to this article, the ping was near the car:
http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/articl ... 967e7.html
That's very different than Smith Water Canyon. Both articles say the ping was 4pm July 27/Thursday.