The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is treating the death of a hiker as suspicious after a body was discovered in Big Sur on April 9. Photo: Evan Quarnstrom
A body found in the Big Sur wilderness has been identified as 37-year-old Joanna Ruth Shields of Carlsbad, California, according to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office. The body was discovered on April 9 by hikers in the vicinity of Sykes Hot Springs under circumstances that the Sheriff’s Office called “suspicious.”
The cause of death is still pending the results of toxicology tests, but the hikers who found the body said that she appeared to have marks on her neck and a gash on her head. They also reported seeing a man on the trail who appeared to be shaken up and in shock. The Sheriff’s statement didn’t say if that man has been identified or questioned, but no one is currently in custody.
“On one hand, we didn’t know if (the man on the trail) was just having the worst day of his life or, on the other, like he had just killed someone, so I just went in with, like…..just be ultra-cautious, slow things down and make sure everyone’s safe,” hiker Luke Heerema told KSBW 8.
When the hikers asked the man what had happened to Shields, he said he had found her face down in the river.
The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact them.
Sykes Hot Spring is a popular hike in the Ventana Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest on California’s central coast. The hot springs are reached via a 10-mile hike that follows the contours of the Big Sur River.
The Pine Ridge Trail was briefly closed to hikers starting at Big Sur Station. Still, one day after the incident, a hiker left a review of the trip on AllTrails, saying it was rainy and there were “not a lot of people on the trail.”
