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Remains of missing 30-year-old Lauren Cho found in the California desert, cops say

A 30-year-old went missing in the California desert months ago. Her remains were just found and identified.

Lauren Cho walked away from a home near Joshua Tree National Park in June and has been missing since, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said.

The San Bernardino County Coroner’s Division said Thursday remains found earlier this month in the desert were Cho’s. The manner and cause of death are pending toxicology results, the coroner said.

Officials found the human remains in “the rugged terrain of the open desert of Yucca Valley,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

The remains were near where Cho went missing nearly four months ago. She was last seen in the Yucca Valley on June 28 when she walked away from a home near Joshua Tree National Park, according to the sheriff’s office.

Cho was a New Jersey resident whose friends called her “El,” McClatchy News reported. She moved to California eight months before she disappeared, the Hi-Desert Star reported.

She had driven across the country with her friend in a tour bus for a “different life,” Cody Orell, the last person to see Cho before she vanished, told Hi-Desert Star.

“There was a 10-minute window there and she evaporated,” Orell told the news outlet.

After Gabby Petito’s disappearance gained national attention, some people on social media pointed to Cho’s missing person case. Many have said the cases show disproportionate media coverage for missing white women compared to missing people of color.

Cho’s family, however, said the two cases are very different, according to the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

“We understand the frustration many of you have expressed about how and why certain cases receive national coverage,” her family said, according to the news outlet. “Ultimately, these two cases are NOT the same and the differences run deeper than what meets the public eye.”

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