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

[tarabull]

Phone showing no longer in service / disconnected IMO means NOT an accident, it means ~s o m e o n e~ purposefully cancelled said cell plan.
:MOO:

 

[sasha17]

Phone showing no longer in service / disconnected IMO means NOT an accident, it means ~s o m e o n e~ purposefully cancelled said cell plan.
:MOO:

I'm wondering if this was a translation error. The article saying "the phone was not connected" could also mean when her family called her, the calls weren't connecting. Maybe she had no service, her phone battery died, or she just wasn't answering the calls.

 

[megs1477]

I'm wondering if this was a translation error. The article saying "the phone was not connected" could also mean when her family called her, the calls weren't connecting. Maybe she had no service, her phone battery died, or she just wasn't answering the calls.

That is kind of what I was thinking...before that it was ringing, after that straight to voicemail.

 

[acutename]

Sorry but I can't remember the following info: How old is John? And do we know when he left the Navy?

While JRF may have had those skills, how many years had it been since he had actually used them?

He may have had the knowledge but age and time can take a toll on a person. So maybe he wasn't as honed as he once was.

MOO.

52
he has a Linkedin page that is public

 

[hazel324]

Here’s a map showing the various locations: Fang Jin Case Map

Very useful info

As some mentioned earlier in the thread...looks like Mexico could be the destination! (for one of them)

I'm down to one option now...

 

[tarabull]

Surely someone has checked the Old Dale Mining district...????

ETA...for FANG!

 

[megs1477]

Very useful info

As some mentioned earlier in the thread...looks like Mexico could be the destination! (for one of them)

I'm down to one option now...

From Julian a turn South goes to Mexico, but a turn North takes them back to Palm Springs area.

 

[hazel324]

Surely someone has checked the Old Dale Mining district...????

ETA...for FANG!

Throughout this thread it seems no-one has been able to find any active searches for her. This has been incredibly frustrating especially for her poor daughter and friend

 

[hazel324]

Something to note...we've not seen any family/friends of JFitz attempting to find him or make pleas for him to make contact...why??

Is it because those who know him have a good idea what likely happened ?

A few weeks ago, although still a sad outcome, I thought they could've had an accident, somewhere remote and succumbed to injuries/heat

As time has gone on I'm now leaning to something more sinister. Vehicle has been hidden out of sight and he has gone by foot to Mexico - moo

 

[Nova]

I live in South Louisiana and we are acclimated to high temperatures with humidity often 100 percent. We don’t pay much attention to the temperature but watch the humidity. in the south, humidity is a killer. What is the humidity like in your region?

SEE 10ofRods' post on our temps above. He gives you the numbers. My remarks below are based more on my personal experience (as someone who really hates the heat).

I was raised in South Florida and now live in Palm Springs, CA.

The southwest of the US is basically one, enormous desert. Our humidity is usually much less than yours.

On the other hand--and who knows what the new "normal" is for weather nowadays--our highs may be 20 degrees or more higher than yours in the summer. Personally, I find that when the thermometer tops 110, it really doesn't matter how "dry" it is. (10ofRods confirms this above.) We lose hikers every year because they get lost or fail to take enough water with them.

People who say "but it's a dry heat" are relatively accurate, though they are usually referring to the American tourist season (roughly Halloween to Mother's Day). (10ofRods is correct that the trend for the past 20 years is that our hotels fill up with foreign nationals during the traditional European holiday "month" of August. Germans are very common then.)

We also have a "monsoon season" in the summer, when our humidity goes up, and is sometimes accompanied by thunder storms (and, this year, Hurricane Hillary). I lived in Tallahassee for a few years, so I know how ugly it can get along the Gulf Coast. It's rarely THAT humid here, but it's bad enough our evaporative coolers stop working and life is impossible without AC.

Most of the time, fortunately, the humidity blocks some of the sunlight, so a VERY humid day may keep the high under 100. However, the high on July 22 was 120 degrees Fahrenheit. For most of July it was 115-120 during the afternoon, cooling down only to about 90 at dawn--when the temperature started rising again!

 

[Nova]

Don't most people want to be further away from their own home when camping? The goal is usually go somewhere and see something new.

And didn't they head to Julian afterwards (several campgrounds on the way, more or less). At least, he apparently went to Julian but what was posted here in the past couple of days made me think that the daughters believed their mom was still with him in Julian.

This seems to be confirmation that they were camping - although with what equipment, I don't know (some people just put sleeping bags in the bed of their truck).

It's possible that Desert Hot Springs somehow got transformed into Thermal, although Thermal is definitely a good sized town out that - and that's what was in some of the LE communication, or at least so I thought. Desert Hot Springs is in the opposite direction than Thermal (and DHS is really close to where JRF lived in the first place - and immediately outside of Joshua Tree...hard for me to believe this would be a destination - not a lot there, and it's nicer to camp in Joshua Tree, if one is going to be right there). OTOH, Desert Hot Springs is expensive and more upscale. The nearby NPS campground is usually booked way in advance - I'd think that if they had been there, we'd know about it.

So, if the statements about Thermal are wrong, then we are more steps away from any reliable narrative or places to try and look or alert people to look.

IMO.

Rods, if I may, Desert Hot Springs is the locus of most of our crime out here. There is a nice section of resorts and hot springs at the foot of Mount San Gorgonio, but the rest of DHS is just as poor and dusty as Thermal. If we hear "drug bust" or "cartel murder", we think "Desert Hot Springs".

I hear the ritzy parts are very, very nice, but all the streets I've seen there could stand in for "poor part of Mexico" in a film or TV show. (This is not to insult our neighbor to the South, which has many places of great beauty!)

 

[Sunbeams]

Just to clarify something as I’m confused, this photo of his truck floating around from a camera, is it definitely a recent photo? Has it been confirmed that this photo has been taken on a certain date/location? Or is it a photo the police found from a random day and are using it to help identify his truck?

 

[ClaireNC]

Just to clarify something as I’m confused, this photo of his truck floating around from a camera, is it definitely a recent photo? Has it been confirmed that this photo has been taken on a certain date/location? Or is it a photo the police found from a random day and are using it to help identify his truck?

That’s a really good question. We don’t really know, LE haven’t officially released that information to the public. The info we have is based on what LE told the family in China.

 

[10ofRods]

Rods, if I may, Desert Hot Springs is the locus of most of our crime out here. There is a nice section of resorts and hot springs at the foot of Mount San Gorgonio, but the rest of DHS is just as poor and dusty as Thermal. If we hear "drug bust" or "cartel murder", we think "Desert Hot Springs".

I hear the ritzy parts are very, very nice, but all the streets I've seen there could stand in for "poor part of Mexico" in a film or TV show. (This is not to insult our neighbor to the South, which has many places of great beauty!)

Thank you SO much. I think I've bumped up against this information through local crime reports - but yikes, this is why we've never been out to Borrego-DeAnza area, despite "Soaring Over California" (DCA ride) making me want to go. Badly.

I know exactly what you mean by "standing in" for parts of Mexico. There are towns in Arizona in the same condition. Which is why many of us are pondering the Salton Sea area as a vacation destination - perhaps these two are more into adventure?

It strikes me as odd that so far, we hear of only one early trip to Joshua Trip (worth several day trips) and then this ill-fated trip southward. Did JRF have friends in Thermal? Julian? Anywhere else? Was he really familiar with those areas (as a relative newcomer from the East Coast), or was this his big chance to take his truck into Parts Unknown?

For me, Occam's razor says "wilderness misadventure/truck mishap" but...the locales involved here make my head go to other scenarios.

IMO.

 

[Nova]

Thank you SO much. I think I've bumped up against this information through local crime reports - but yikes, this is why we've never been out to Borrego-DeAnza area, despite "Soaring Over California" (DCA ride) making me want to go. Badly.

I know exactly what you mean by "standing in" for parts of Mexico. There are towns in Arizona in the same condition. Which is why many of us are pondering the Salton Sea area as a vacation destination - perhaps these two are more into adventure?

It strikes me as odd that so far, we hear of only one early trip to Joshua Trip (worth several day trips) and then this ill-fated trip southward. Did JRF have friends in Thermal? Julian? Anywhere else? Was he really familiar with those areas (as a relative newcomer from the East Coast), or was this his big chance to take his truck into Parts Unknown?

For me, Occam's razor says "wilderness misadventure/truck mishap" but...the locales involved here make my head go to other scenarios.

IMO.

They have been talking about "saving" the Salton Sea since before we moved out here in 2004. (It will cost billions of dollars and there's no real city there with enough voters to put pressure on the state government.)

I've only been there a few times, because the shoreline is awash in dead fish (mostly tapia) and the water smells like rotten eggs. (The Sea is the dumping ground where all the fertilizer winds up from the surrounding farms and ranches.) It can be brutal when the wind blows from there to my house, which only happens every decade or so.

Back when PS was the "playground" for the Hollywood elite, the Salton Sea had yacht clubs and boat races and all sorts of tourist attractions, but those are long gone now, except for lovely B&W photos at the PS Art Museum!

I have no idea why anyone would choose to go there on "vacation". There are so many nicer places in the so-called "Inland Empire".

My son and one of his exes used to go camping in the Borrego-DeAnza desert (which is across the Santa Rosa mountains from us). He raves about it. But they never went camping there in July, only in the winter.

 

[AnyNameIWish]

This has been shared as a video of JF visiting Tibet 2 years ago (she seems to be a world traveler) and was just posted. Is this allowed?? If not please delete it.

.

It gives absolutely no indication of what is happening now or even a few months ago but it's prefaced as showing how she connected with people throughout her world travels. She owned and ran a hostel/airbnb/hotel in Portugal, but its business name has not been disclosed.

 

[crhedBngr]

This has been shared as a video of JF visiting Tibet 2 years ago (she seems to be a world traveler) and was just posted. Is this allowed?? If not please delete it.

.

It gives absolutely no indication of what is happening now or even a few months ago but it's prefaced as showing how she connected with people throughout her world travels. She owned and ran a hostel/airbnb/hotel in Portugal, but its business name has not been disclosed.

That's nice! The boys were enjoying talking to her.

JMVHO.

 

[JennieM]

This has been shared as a video of JF visiting Tibet 2 years ago (she seems to be a world traveler) and was just posted. Is this allowed?? If not please delete it.

.

It gives absolutely no indication of what is happening now or even a few months ago but it's prefaced as showing how she connected with people throughout her world travels. She owned and ran a hostel/airbnb/hotel in Portugal, but its business name has not been disclosed.

She is lovely

 

[tarabull]

I tried searching for any post in this thread re:
245(A)(4) - Assault w/Deadly Weapon Likely To Produce GBI
--- Am I missing the discussion?

 

[Happypetitvieux01]

Two months in a few days ... I'm guessing LE is monitoring their banking activities but nothing said about those so far?