Fang Jin’s companion, John Fitzpatrick, was found dead in September in the same ‘general vicinicity.’
The remains of a Chinese woman missing in southern California since July were found last month in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Fang Jin, 47, travelled from China on July 14 to meet with 52-year-old former Navy SEAL John Fitzpatrick, whom she met online, at his California home. The two were seen shortly afterward in the Morongo Valley in San Bernardino County, and Jin sent photos home to her family until July 22, when communications ceased, the Victorville Daily Press said.
Her family said her phone was out of service completely by July 25. A friend of Jin’s filed a missing persons report the next day.
On September 4, Fitzpatrick’s Toyota Tacoma truck was found in abandon, with multiple flat tires, in the Harper Flat area of Anza Borrego, KFMB reported. Two weeks later, a hiker found skeletal remains later believed to be Fitzpatrick’s in Harper Canyon, several miles from the truck.
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More than a month later, on October 28, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team found Jin’s remains near the Harper Canyon trailhead. The sheriff’s office said the remains were found “in the general vicinity of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s.”
San Diego County officials have not publicly confirmed the identities of either set of remains, and the autopsy results have been sealed, pending further investigation. But both Fitzpatrick’s and Fin’s families were notified of the discovery.
Gloria Huerta, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, told KFMB that “the Fang Jin missing person case in SB County was closed after San Diego investigators informed us that she had been located deceased in SD County.”
San Diego County Sheriff’s Media Director David LaDieu declined to even comment on “what another county’s Coroner’s Office is releasing.”
“At this time there is no additional information available for release from the San Diego Sheriff’s Office,” he said.
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