In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I am profiling one Asian or Pacific Islander MP for every day of the month of May. Today’s case is Maria Pomona Cruz Estrada, a 66-year-old tourist who disappeared from the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, California in 2008.
Maria is from the Philippines and was visiting relatives in the U.S. when she went missing. She went hiking in the preserve with a partner, and they separated and were going to meet up later, but Maria never showed up.
I think it’s a bad idea to EVER go hiking alone in a wilderness area, particularly if you’re not familiar with it, which Maria presumably was not. Sadly she probably got lost and died horribly in the desert.
The Charley Project Blog 