After nearly three months of searching, it appears the bodies of the pair of hikers who have been missing in Joshua Tree National Park since July 27 have been found. Joshua Tree Search and Rescue reported that JOSAR searchers found the bodies Sunday morning. JOSAR said that Gilbert Orbeso, the father of Joseph Orbeso, one of the missing hikers, was with the search party—as he has been nearly every weekend for the last 12 weeks—looking for his son and his son’s friend, Rachen Nguyen, 20, when the searchers found two bodies about 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning. The searchers had hiked into a new area in Joshua Tree National Park accessed off Mount Lassen Avenue in Joshua Tree. On July 28, the owner of the vacation rental where Orbeso and Nguyen had been staying in Joshua Tree notified the Sheriff’s Department that the couple was missing, after they failed to check out and their belongings were still in the home but their car was missing. A cell phone ping on July 27 indicated the couple was in Joshua Tree National Park. The county coroner and Sheriff’s deputies were flown into the park Sunday afternoon via a helicopter, but the bodies won’t be removed until Monday, according to a Sheriff’s spokeswoman. It is up to the coroner to positively identify the bodies as those of Joseph Orbeso and Rachel Nguyen and determine the cause of death.
