CA CA - Monica Reza, 60, hiker, Mount Waterman, Los Angeles National Forest, 22 Jun 2025

[ItalyReader]

Is no one else curious about the fact that Reza went hiking with two experienced hikers, one goes back to their car and the other one stays with her but gets separated? Dangerous area.. you don't get separated and you would not go off by yourself. No names released of these hikers and there aren't any statements by them that I could find. Hiking is dangerous... falls, mountain lions, snakes and serial killers. If you need 911, do you think they can find you in time to save you? NOT.

I have not been able to find a thorough account of what happened. Some of the news articles seem very vague.
I did watch the yoga video and the other man in the video struck me as a bit intense “life changing” language etc - I wonder if the young man in the video was one of the hiking companions -
I wonder if that yoga group inspired them to begin “running oddly” as has been quoted in several articles.
I don’t know what running oddly means -
(Monica Reza Is a Missing Scientist: The Strange Circumstances of Her Disappearance)

 

[planet]

Is no one else curious about the fact that Reza went hiking with two experienced hikers, one goes back to their car and the other one stays with her but gets separated? Dangerous area.. you don't get separated and you would not go off by yourself. No names released of these hikers and there aren't any statements by them that I could find. Hiking is dangerous... falls, mountain lions, snakes and serial killers. If you need 911, do you think they can find you in time to save you? NOT.

"Curious" is not my response. Disappointment, alarm, and dismay are.

The trail is not a gentle path through woodland or meadow terrain. Hiking it requires heightened safety consciousness and practice. That being said, my feelings are irrelevant to what's happened. There is a risk of substituting harsh judgement of decisions for compassion for her, and for her family, friends, and colleagues.

There are lessons any of us can draw from this event for using increased caution when hiking ridge trails than when hiking flat, woodland or meadow trails. My one step out would be to urge hikers not to jog or run on ridge trails--but perhaps my calculus of that risk is too high. Exposure to sun and heat without adequate water are the most serious hazards for hikers on most trails.

 

[ItalyReader]

I have not been able to find a thorough account of what happened. Some of the news articles seem very vague.
I did watch the yoga video and the other man in the video struck me as a bit intense “life changing” language etc - I wonder if the young man in the video was one of the hiking companions -
I wonder if that yoga group inspired them to begin “running oddly” as has been quoted in several articles.
I don’t know what running oddly means -
(Monica Reza Is a Missing Scientist: The Strange Circumstances of Her Disappearance)

By the way, caution with that yahoo article.

Monica is 60 but it says “Reza worked for Aerojet Rocketdyne for more than 37 years in the area of “fellow-materials science and engineering," her LinkedIn page says. Before that, she worked for 25 years for Pratt & Whitney”.

37+25 is older than she - ai journalism perhaps?

 

[truthfinder2019]

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VPLCd1X6j5UQjny7U38Ns4GqgYBuV4D3xroFdrsjS9y9wbmVr115sSpQUMbGqTQRl&id=100064799227930

 

[SideQuestHiker]

I just learned there is a Google Street map of the trail in question dated Jan, 2025. This will give you a better idea of what it looked like before the "ill-fated corner" was made more obvious:

Street View of ill-fated corner

 

[SideQuestHiker]

I have not been able to find a thorough account of what happened. Some of the news articles seem very vague.
I did watch the yoga video and the other man in the video struck me as a bit intense “life changing” language etc - I wonder if the young man in the video was one of the hiking companions -
I wonder if that yoga group inspired them to begin “running oddly” as has been quoted in several articles.
I don’t know what running oddly means -
(Monica Reza Is a Missing Scientist: The Strange Circumstances of Her Disappearance)

OMG that article has so much mis-information. For example, they weren't "oddly running", they were lightly jogging. And the specific part of the trail they were jogging down was not "steep and uneven" but a gentle slope. I'm a 63 year old and I jogged down that part of the trail in my video.

 

[SideQuestHiker]

This Sentinel article says she was declared dead 4 days after disappearance while Helis were still searching -

Is that true? I can’t find any other mention of that online.

The Sentinel article was the first I heard of the FindAGrave memorial, too, and haven't found any other reference to it. Though admittedly, I haven't looked that hard. I believe anyone with a FindAGrave account can create a memorial. It doesn't mean she was official declared dead.

 

[planet]

I just learned there is a Google Street map of the trail in question dated Jan, 2025. This will give you a better idea of what it looked like before the "ill-fated corner" was made more obvious:

Street View of ill-fated corner

That is a terrific find. I never would have expected a Google street map of that trail. I have been looking for an image of that corner since I learned about this incident.

Looking at it makes the conjecture that she simply missed the turn north and continued running west off the trail with no ability to recover less credible.

 

[planet]

That is a terrific find. I never would have expected a Google street map of that trail. I have been looking for an image of that corner since I learned about this incident.

Looking at it makes the conjecture that she simply missed the turn north and continued running west off the trail with no ability to recover less credible.

There are points several hundred metres east of that turn where it looks more likely she would have gone off trail. One is what looks like a false trail going somewhat southwest. That looks like a place where she might have made a wrong turn before the corner and encountered the steeper southern side of the ridge.

The other point is slightly further east up the trail towards the mount. The brush clears and the distance to the edge is shorter. It looks like it would be a good place to walk to the edge for a photo. One stumble or trip unfortunately might have pitched her over.

What I see is the corner and the trail metres just east of the corner, where her hiking companion claimed he signaled to her and she acknowledged his signal, would not be visible to her. They appear to be uphill from these points. I can't tell for sure because I'm not on the trail. But if that's the case, then it might suggest that this communication never happened: she went off trail and down the south side of the ridge at one of these points (from tripping or running southwest off the trail), he went looking for her when she didn't make the turn, and he could not locate her.

This seems more plausible than his story that he looked back to signal to her, then she smiled at him and looked down at the ground.That's an oddly specific sequence of behavioral details to recall while running on a trail. When folks say something sounds fishy of his account, this is the part that does not feel credible to me.

 

[truthfinder2019]

Monica Jacinto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-jacinto-b9346756/

 

[truthfinder2019]

Has reached German press

Die Nacht ohne Sterne: Was bleibt, wenn Amerikas klügste Köpfe verschwinden

Ob in New Mexico oder in den Canyons von Kalifornien – immer wieder verschwinden Menschen aus dem Umfeld der US-Militärforschung. Eine Spurensuche.

www.berliner-zeitung.de

 

[ItalyReader]

Monica Jacinto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-jacinto-b9346756/

Thank you for this. So it looks like she overlapped at Aero and Pratt&Whitney.
Wish the press had gotten that right.

 

[ItalyReader]

If anyone is interested in joining a private discussion group regarding Monica Reza Jacinto please let me know.

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Here is Part 2 (and last) of my videos about Monica Reza's disappearance. I hope it adds to the conversation in a productive way.

Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 2

 

[ItalyReader]

Here is Part 2 (and last) of my videos about Monica Reza's disappearance. I hope it adds to the conversation in a productive way.

Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 2

Thank you for this video and all the effort and thought you put into it. It does help us all understand the landscape and possible twists and turns.
It does seem quite difficult that in the barren expanse even calling out one one would not hear or be heard.
Disorientation seems a strong possibility as the landscape looks all very much the same.
I’m at a loss.

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Thank you for this video and all the effort and thought you put into it. It does help us all understand the landscape and possible twists and turns.
It does seem quite difficult that in the barren expanse even calling out one one would not hear or be heard.
Disorientation seems a strong possibility as the landscape looks all very much the same.
I’m at a loss.

Glad you found the video useful! I was really surprise to see first-hand how weird sound travels up there. I thought I would have an easier time hearing the guys standing at the '150 feet away' spot. I could hear and understand them, but just barely. I think line-of-sight really make a huge difference up there.

After having done both videos now, I think disorientation at the corner seems the most likely scenario. In Part 1 I kept explaining how you could use the view of the desert, city, and ocean to orient yourself, but if you find yourself in the bowl just beyond the corner all those directional cues are out of view.

 

[SideQuestHiker]

New article about her disappearance

Exclusive: For Monica Reza’s Family, “It Doesn’t Make Sense”

 

[LAhiker]

New article about her disappearance

Exclusive: For Monica Reza’s Family, “It Doesn’t Make Sense”

That article has some interesting info about what was going on in Monica's life. It contains some clear errors, such as the statement that the summit photo was the last one taken of Monica.

The article contains some other statements that I haven't heard before, which might reflect errors or misunderstandings on the part of the reporters or which might reflect shifting stories by the surviving participants:

Reza hiked to the summit with the male companion from her yoga group, while a second female companion only went about halfway, before stopping and doing some yoga, as the climb was difficult. The female eventually went back to her car, before later seeing the male companion, who then told her Reza was missing.

As far as I know, previous accounts have said that the other female hiker (sometimes referred to as hiker C) stayed near the bottom of the steep section until the male companion (sometimes referred to as Hiker A) came down and told her Monica was missing.

That said, I think a group of hikers who Hiker A met on the trail, and with whom he did some initial searching, encouraged him to return to the trailhead in case Monica had gone back there some other way. So maybe there's just a little confusion about the exact sequence of those events.

JMO

 

[ItalyReader]

New article about her disappearance

Exclusive: For Monica Reza’s Family, “It Doesn’t Make Sense”

There is a section in that article that refers to 2 or 3 trails not by name.
Can anyone confirm what the names of these trails are? Probably obvious for those of you who have hiked these, but could you help an armchair hiker out?

I have 3 questions -
1 - I think the trail that "includes two primary access points" must be "Mt Waterman via Upper West Ridge". Is that right?
2 - Which trail, instead, would be the "more hazardous southern route"?
3 - Which trail would be the "another trail" accessible only via offtrail/brush/wilderness trekking?

Bolding by me.

"the trail includes two primary access points: a northern entrance near a parking lot and highway, where Reza began her hike, and one by the Mt. Waterman Ski-Lifts, which has a road that “off-road vehicles” can drive on. Reza’s beanie, however, was found in the direction of a more hazardous southern route (which was not an entrance or access point), and one would have to go off the trail, through brush and the wilderness, in order to land back on another trail. Based on her familiarity with the area and Reza’s personality, the family member said it is unlikely she would have chosen the more dangerous southern path on purpose."