YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Searchers in Southern California have found a body in the Yucca Valley desert, two months after Lauren Cho disappeared in the area.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Sunday that the human remains were found in rugged terrain in the open desert on Saturday. Now, the coroner’s office is working to identify the remains and determine a cause of death.
The Sheriff’s Office had searched by air and on foot for Cho, 30, who walked away from a rental house on June 28.
Her case is one of many involving people of color that don’t get much public attention. Complaints about a phenomenon known as “missing white woman syndrome” soared during the search for Gabby Petito, a white 22-year-old whose body was found in Wyoming after she vanished during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend that she chronicled on social media.
NewsNation aired a special edition of “Missing in America” focusing on Cho’s disappearance. You can watch the special here.
The Sheriff’s Office said the identification process could take several weeks and that no further information will be released until those results are confirmed.
NewsNation asked viewers to send us cases that we should be featuring on “Missing in America.” Our team is already sifting through hundreds of tips we have received.