Found Deceased CA - Fang Jin, 47, flew to LA from China, train to Palm Springs, Morongo Basin, 21 Jul 2023, w/ JohnRoot Fitzpatrick, 55, missing, 30 Jul ‘23

[10ofRods]

Adults can disappear themselves but maybe not easily from China. Is it possible she developed a level of trust her and hired him to disappear her? For a price. They disappear together. Emerge somewhere else as a couple, with a fresh life, no one to judge, prohibit, interfere, punish?

Not saying I believe it. She could have paid for an immersion experience and somehow they succumbed to the heat, buried now under sand....

They're missing. She's missing. He's missing. The vehicle is missing. No reason to think she didn't intend to keep in touch with family and return to them at vacation's end....

She didn't appear (to me anyway) to be in distress in the video, unless she was purposefully and clandestinely filming in order to relay her movements....

Perplexing.

JMO

That one is on my list of possibilities, for sure. I'm noticing that several theories here revolve around the two of them still being together, just going underground from the world for a while. It happens.

I hope it's true, because then a happy ending is still possible.

 

[flowershop]

I find this very strange. She "operated" a homestay? What's that? Normally, if you travel and are in a homestay, you stay with a local family in lieu of a hotel. Students on exchanges often do this.

In her case, a homestay would be in China for visitors coming to China. How is she "operating a homestay in Portugal", when her family is Chinese and not Portuguese?

My guess is, there's been a mis-translation in "operating a homestay in Portugal". IMO it's possible she books homestays online as an online business, perhaps for native Chinese to vacation in Portugal in a Chinese-speaking home. Travel like that would be like travel without ever leaving home turf. Weird. Something off with the info provided IMO. And we don't have any info that she ever went to Portugal?

@cenilla shared these Chinese language news links in which it is said that FJ ran a homestay in Portugal.

æå称失èçéè³çæåè¯ï¼å¥³å¿æ¾æ¥å°å¯ççµè¯â¦â¦25天åä»æ é³è®¯_è¾è®¯æ°é»

æå称失èçéè³çæåè¯ï¼å¥³å¿æ¾æ¥å°å¯ççµè¯â¦â¦25天åä»æ é³è®¯_è¾è®¯æ°é»,éè³,失è,emily,女å¿,çç¾,æå

view.inews.qq.com

百度安全验证

baijiahao.baidu.com

 

[megs1477]

I‘m under the impression that she lived in Portugal, but returned to China during COVID. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where I read that. We’ll just say this is my opinion only.

I believe that was in the Chinese media article that talked about her friend Emily. Emily was saying that was how they met, there was missed flight and she would have lost a lot of money and JF gave her the stay for free. Or something along those lines. It was the story of how they met and became friends.

 

[flowershop]

Thanks for bringing up her position as a homestay host in Portugal. When I read it earlier, I didn’t really process it in my head, not being real familiar with that kind of accommodation for a vacation trip.

it gave me a thought. The SBCSD habe been saying JRT was hired as a tour guide by Fang, which puzzled me, as we heard conflicting things.

What if JRT was a homestay host, too? Do homestay hosts take their guests around to places like he did?

If not officially (as in he’s listed with a company), maybe informally (as in he made the offer after it came up in conversation about her doing homestay hosting in Portugal.)

Just my late night ponderings.

To the possibility "maybe JRF was a homestay host" I am wondering if either JRF or FJ were active on these websites:

homestay.com
homestayin.com
homestayweb.com
lingoo.com

 

[ClaireNC]

I believe that was in the Chinese media article that talked about her friend Emily. Emily was saying that was how they met, there was missed flight and she would have lost a lot of money and JF gave her the stay for free. Or something along those lines. It was the story of how they met and became friends.

Yes! That’s what I read.

 

[RickshawFan]

@cenilla shared these Chinese language news links in which it is said that FJ ran a homestay in Portugal.

æå称失èçéè³çæåè¯ï¼å¥³å¿æ¾æ¥å°å¯ççµè¯â¦â¦25天åä»æ é³è®¯_è¾è®¯æ°é»

æå称失èçéè³çæåè¯ï¼å¥³å¿æ¾æ¥å°å¯ççµè¯â¦â¦25天åä»æ é³è®¯_è¾è®¯æ°é»,éè³,失è,emily,女å¿,çç¾,æå

view.inews.qq.com

百度安全验证

baijiahao.baidu.com

I believe that would be a translation issue, perhaps in the word "operating" as well as the word "homestay". Both of those would lend themselves to ambiguity if translated to a foreign language. And the Chinese may have different concepts of those words than, say, Americans.

 

[flowershop]

I believe that would be a translation issue, perhaps in the word "operating" as well as the word "homestay". Both of those would lend themselves to ambiguity if translated to a foreign language. And the Chinese may have different concepts of those words than, say, Americans.

The word "operating" was my word that I put in my post. The Chinese news site article, when translated on my browser, uses the word "ran" as in "she ran a homestay". Just to be clear.

 

[RickshawFan]

If JRF is 55, he must recently retired from his "security-related" positions in the military? IMO there's no way the military isn't tracking this guy, especially if he connects with a Chinese national.

A friend of mine had a lengthy visit from the FBI when his relatives came to vacation from Russia. They worked in a nuclear facility. So, yeah, there are counter-intelligence officers whose job it is to watch.

Also, these days, electronic traffic is easy to pick up. A desert RV park isn't going to have much traffic, so easy to spot something out of the ordinary. They probably only have one cell tower to follow.

Was this a last-minute trip?

Speculating, but the truck is prolly parked in someone's garage or a storage facility.

 

[RickshawFan]

The word "operating" was my word that I put in my post. The Chinese news site article, when translated on my browser, uses the word "ran" as in "she ran a homestay". Just to be clear.

I wonder what the Chinese concept is behind the original Chinese word?

 

[slowpoke]

I believe that would be a translation issue, perhaps in the word "operating" as well as the word "homestay". Both of those would lend themselves to ambiguity if translated to a foreign language. And the Chinese may have different concepts of those words than, say, Americans.

As @flowershop stated, @cenilla is the poster who has shared the article written in the Chinese language about Fang’s homestay in Portugal.

I believe our WS member cenilla is able to read and understand the language. Perhaps she can provide more clarity to the concept of homestay as meant in the article.

 

[RickshawFan]

As @flowershop stated, @cenilla is the poster who has shared the article written in the Chinese language about Fang’s homestay in Portugal.

I believe our WS member cenilla is able to read and understand the language. Perhaps she can provide more clarity to the concept of homestay as meant in the article.

IMO The Chinese meaning behind the Chinese word is the detail that's relevant in this context, since we might experience ambiguity even if the word has an English translation. One word can mean a lot of things! For instance, you could get into a terrible fix with the English words "past", "running", "managing", or "using"; the meaning would even vary depending on what country you lived in, your demographic, profession, ethnicity, age.... So, it's important to know usage to understand what's really going on.

 

[slowpoke]

IMO The Chinese meaning behind the Chinese word is the detail that's relevant in this context, since we might experience ambiguity even if the word has an English translation. One word can mean a lot of things! For instance, you could get into a terrible fix with the English words "past", "running", "managing", or "using"; the meaning would even vary depending on what country you lived in, your demographic, profession, ethnicity, age.... So, it's important to know usage to understand what's really going on.

Of course. But then, I also don’t want to overlook the point of the woman’s story—which, to me, was that Fang Jin showed her, a customer, amazing kindness and compassion at a low point in her life, and that was the start of their friendship.

It gave me a sense of maybe who Fang is as a person. Capable, decisive, warm and kind.

 

[RickshawFan]

Of course. But then, I also don’t want to overlook the point of the woman’s story—which, to me, was that Fang Jin showed her, a customer, amazing kindness and compassion at a low point in her life, and that was the start of their friendship.

It gave me a sense of maybe who Fang is as a person. Capable, decisive, warm and kind.

I'm not sure I follow you. I was commenting on the potential linguistic ambiguity of "operating" and "homestay". I don't have anything to say about Fang's personality.

 

[slowpoke]

I'm not sure I follow you. I was commenting on the potential linguistic ambiguity of "operating" and "homestay". I don't have anything to say about Fang's personality.

I suppose I was digressing, just going off on a tangent.
Sorry.

 

[slowpoke]

I am not positive, but think this site, MissingPersonsCenter.org added vehicle information to Fang’s page, which WE know to be JRF’s pickup truck, although his name does not appear in the details (he’s in one of the photos, though).

 

[sasha17]

Taking a step back from the small details here and thinking about the case as a whole... Have we seen other cases where two people have gone missing together in one vehicle yet they're reported missing days apart, and the vehicle isn't associated with both of them in the missing reports? Just wondering if that's a unique thing in this case. It seems like it is to me, but my memory's not always great!

 

[slowpoke]

RBBM

Woah.

So, we have several possibilities right now:

1. The person contacting FJ's relatives and friends is JRF

2. The person contacting FJ's relatives and friends is an accomplice.

3. Unknown. Not enough information exists to form a third hypothesis.

JMVHO.

The article’s wording is awkward so that it’s hard for me to really know what went on in the exchange between this supposed friend of JRF and Fang’s family, IMO. Hopefully, regardless, they have a name to go with this person and gave it to the SBCSD.

I put the one paragraph into a translation site,(systran net) and this is how it translated:

曾有一位自称是约翰朋友的人，主动联系上了金芳的亲友。“但交流中发现，这个人不但没有给我们透露有用的信息，反而是在套我们的话，打听我们的搜寻进度，对我们的搜寻进行干扰。”林女士说，这件事让他们感觉，约翰可能具有危险性，“这个所谓的朋友不像是约翰本人，这也让我们怀疑，约翰是否还有同伙，也使得我们更担心起了母亲的安危。”

“A man who claimed to be a friend of John's reached out to Mr. Jin's family and friends. "But the exchange found that instead of giving us useful information, the man was confusing us, checking our search progress and interfering with our search." Ms. Lam said it made them feel that John might be dangerous. "The fact that this so-called friend is not John himself makes us wonder if John has any other accomplices and makes us more worried about our mother's safety."

Reading this translation makes me wonder if the person‘s intentions were just misunderstood by Fang’s family.
MOO

 

[10ofRods]

Taking a step back from the small details here and thinking about the case as a whole... Have we seen other cases where two people have gone missing together in one vehicle yet they're reported missing days apart, and the vehicle isn't associated with both of them in the missing reports? Just wondering if that's a unique thing in this case. It seems like it is to me, but my memory's not always great!

I think it is definitely unusual. Of course, it's possible LE doesn't know that they left together in the same vehicle. It would seem so. The date for FJ is based on her last phone contact with family, I believe, and for JF it's a phone ping in Julian, CA. We have not been told if there's any evidence that FJ was also in Julian.

His phone was in Thermal the day before, so it's assumed he was driving the truck.

BUT, we don't know that. A third party could have way-laid them and be driving the truck. A third party could have taken both phones (discarding first one and then the other - but why anyone would do that is beyond me, but there are some weirdo disorganized criminals).

There has been no general call for trying to locate the truck here in SoCal, that I know of, which is not all that unusual as we usually only hear about missing children and medically compromised/elderly missing on our local alert system (which includes freeway signs).

I am sure LE knows some major things we don't know. I do think it would make High Desert News if the truck were located.

I think the reason it's in NAMUS the way it is...is that LE isn't sure whether they were both still associated with the truck and the part about different dates is just factual - based only on the phone records. No word that anyone has seen either of them.

Is the vehicle associated with just him? I've forgotten.

IMO.

 

[Centaurus]

The thing I don't understand, if she's an experienced traveler, why on earth would she go to one of the hottest places in the U.S. during one of the hottest summers on the books? Why?

 

[ClaireNC]

Taking a step back from the small details here and thinking about the case as a whole... Have we seen other cases where two people have gone missing together in one vehicle yet they're reported missing days apart, and the vehicle isn't associated with both of them in the missing reports? Just wondering if that's a unique thing in this case. It seems like it is to me, but my memory's not always great!

The case is unique in many ways. However, there have been cases of people who disappeared together, but the individuals were reported at different times. In some cases, the family members making the report didn’t know who their loved one was with when the made the report. A good example is two teens who run off together and each of their parents report them missing but it takes a while to realize they are together. Sometimes in those cases LE will update databases to reflect that they are together or the media will run some follow-up stories with the new information.

I think in this case, the sheriff’s office just isn’t taking the missing persons reports seriously to begin with, and, therefore, haven’t updated NamUs or their missing flyers to reflect that these two are together. Also the media dropped the ball on reporting any follow-ups. Part of that could be that Hurricane Hilary came through and became the center of attention.