Lauren Cho Walked Off Into the Desert & Her Body Was Found Months Later 28:16

Hello everyone and welcome back. I'm so happy to have you here with me to discuss yet another case today. And if you're new, then welcome. Before we get into today's case, I wanted to quickly remind you guys that my charity merch has restocked. It's the final restock for that collection. And I really mean it this time. This is the last time to get your hands on this particular collection.

So that's available and 100% of the proceeds from that collection goes to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And then my channel merch is also available on the same page if you would like to pick up some of that. And I apologize if it has sold out by the time you're watching this. We will be eventually launching a new collection for Neck Mech, so look forward to that. It's actually really cool and I'm excited about it.

All right, let's go ahead and get into this case. So today we're going to be talking about Lauren Cho, who was born December 20th, 1990 in Hunterton County, New Jersey. There is some basic information available about her early childhood and her life leading up to the disappearance. However, any information about her family has been lost.

largely kept private but lauren or l as she was nicknamed was a korean-american woman who at an early age found a passion for the arts not only was she a black belt in taekwondo she was also a classically trained soprano singer for school she attended hunterton central regional high school and spent most of her summers touring with her choir group in europe

And it was actually in her high school choir group that she met her very close friend and future boyfriend, Cody Orrell. Lauren graduated high school in 2009, and her passion for music and for choir led her to the Westminster Choir College at Rider University, where she studied music education. And after she graduated in 2013, she went on to get a job as a high school music teacher.

Lauren spent the next several years of her life pursuing music, but she also had a lot of other artistic interests. And if there's one thing to know about Lauren, she was a very determined person. And if she had her mind set to do something, she sure as hell was going to do it.

She was very open to trying new things and was constantly exploring different artistic mediums. And in 2019, she was working part-time as an apprentice for a tattoo and piercing artist named Len Girardi in Flemington, New Jersey.

she had several tattoos and piercings herself which was just one of the many ways that she expressed herself creatively but this new life that she was just getting started building really started to change when the pandemic hit and i'm sure many of us can relate to that lauren was still working as a school music teacher and obviously education was one of the biggest fields impacted by the pandemic

Many teachers had to switch to teaching over Zoom, which was a huge adjustment for all of them, I'm sure. Definitely not easy to teach virtually like that. And especially when you're teaching music, that's hard. Lauren loved interacting with her students and teaching just wasn't as effective or as fun as it was when she could actually be with them in person.

So when all of this happened and the world kind of was on pause, Lauren decided it was finally time to change things up and leave her home state of New Jersey. And we also talked about how Lauren had met and dated a boy named Cody Orrell. And it's unclear exactly how long the two of them were in a relationship, but whenever they did break up, they remained close friends.

So much so that Cody was willing to go on this new adventure with Lauren. So in December of 2020, she quit her job and the two of them packed up his tour bus and drove across country together. Now, when I first read that they traveled in a tour bus, I was like,

I tried to look up more information about Cody because if you have a tour bus, you'd think there'd be, you know, some more information about you out there, but there is really no information that I could find at least about Cody. And like the Cho family, if Cody has, you know, chosen to remain private, I ask that we all respect that. Now, as for this trip, Lauren's intention was to end up in Bombay Beach, California, where she would be starting up a food truck. And it sounds to me like this was...

kind of a figure it out as you go kind of trip. So when they got there, Lauren and Cody settled in Bombay beach right along Salton sea. And I had actually never heard of Bombay beach and I was curious about it. And I actually learned that it actually used to be a super popular getaway location in the 1980s, but the lakes ecosystem ended up being destroyed over time, which obviously drove away tourism and a lot of local businesses. And

And from what I've read online, it was kind of thought of as a ghost town for a long time. And less than a decade ago, it started to become a place where artists and kind of free spirited people move to create their own communities, which to me sounds like a place that Lauren would have loved. And Lauren didn't waste any time when it came to starting out this new endeavor. She actually purchased a school bus and was set on turning it into a food truck, which is hard to do, but yeah,

she wanted to do it no matter how long it took. And she actually always had a passion for baking and her friends and family loved to try all the things that Lauren would make. But she became even more passionate about cooking once she got to California and spent time there. So even though the food truck wasn't built yet, she began cooking for her new friends and it became clear pretty quickly that she was a very talented chef.

Her friends started telling their other friends about her food. And the more the word spread, the more people she ended up cooking for. And as word got around about her delicious meals, she ended up landing a job as a chef for aspiring Italian filmmaker, Tao Raspoli. And she worked at one of his Airbnb compounds called The Holes. This compound was located between Yucca Valley and Morongo Valley, just outside of Joshua Tree.

I call this an Airbnb, but it's definitely not what you would expect for a typical Airbnb property. Tao actually owned and operated several bed and breakfast type places, all in sort of off the grid locations. And the appeal of these places is that they are all sort of catered to artists who are

more free spirited. It was an adult only property and according to the property's listing, it was known as having liberal policies when it came to clothing. So basically it wasn't uncommon for these artists to walk around naked. And this was ultimately a very ideal place for Lauren to live because she herself was very free spirited.

As a chef, she was able to make a living while also taking time to convert her school bus into a food truck. And she and Cody were actually living in the bus together, which makes me think it must have been a somewhat decent size. And Cody said that even though they weren't romantically involved, it wasn't at all weird that they were living together. And by all accounts, as far as everything I've been able to find, Lauren seemed to be really thriving in this new life and enjoying it. I

I mean, she had a lot more freedom than she did before. And she was able to connect with all of these really free spirited people who she could bounce ideas off of. And they all also shared a passion for art. One thing that I read about Lauren that I thought was really funny is that she kind of had a quirky personality and loved to, um,

buy cute little things like for her friends and for herself. And she would actually roll around with a chicken purse. And I thought that was so awesome.

But everything changed in June of 2021 when Lauren walked away from the compound and was never seen alive again. So June 28th, 2021 was a day that was supposed to be like any other. And it started out fairly normal. It was a chill day for them. Lauren and a handful of her friends hung out drinking for a few hours and having fun. And from what I can tell, the drinking wasn't

out of control. It was a very hot day. I mean, out in the desert. So her and her friends definitely indulged in some cold drinks. But at some point in the day, her and Cody ended up getting into some type of argument. And by his recollection of it and everyone else that was there, it wasn't some crazy big fight.

but what we do know is that at some point during this argument lauren wanted to leave the compound and wanted to drive away but because she had been drinking cody wouldn't let her

And I think for any of us who have had a few drinks before and then have been told we can't do something, it only makes you more upset because your emotions just aren't as regulated. So Lauren was frustrated that Cody wouldn't let her drive, but obviously Cody was doing the right thing by not letting her drive after drinking. And I'm sure he did not expect what happened to actually happen.

lauren decided to leave on foot it was around 3 p.m when she stormed off the property by herself she didn't bring her cell phone food or water and it seemed like she was just leaving to kind of blow off some steam and it was only about 10 minutes after lauren left that cody decided to go after her and he figured she wouldn't have gone very far since she left on foot it had been 10 minutes but that's all it took

10 minutes. In 10 minutes, Lauren Cho, 30 years old, completely disappeared. So once Cody went out on his own looking for her and realized that she was nowhere to be seen, he went back to the compound and grabbed more people to go out and search for her. And they spent the next two hours or so looking through the nearby desert for any signs of where she could have gone, but there was no sign of her whatsoever.

And Cody ended up calling the local sheriff's office at 5.13 p.m. to report Lauren missing. And keep in mind that this compound is in a very remote area and it's close to Joshua Tree National Park.

In some ways, this would hopefully make finding her easy because there aren't that many people around. But at the same time, there are so many more remote places where she could be. The Morongo Basin Sheriff's Department responded to this report right away, but...

But even though they acted very quickly, they found zero signs of Lauren. Officers quickly learned that she was last seen wearing a yellow t-shirt, jean shorts, and Doc Martin boots. But what struck them right away as strange is that Doc Martins have a very distinct print and they would have found shoe prints in the dirt. However, there were no signs of her tracks anywhere. The only track marks that officers could find were...

from her friends walking around looking for her. And because of this, and I'm sure many of you are starting to think this as well, they started to think that maybe she was picked up by someone in a car. This also seemed possible considering her last known location was near Ben Mar Trail and Hoopa Road, which is just off California State Route 62. If Lauren had managed to walk all the way to the highway, it's likely that someone would have seen her and that she would have been kind of surprised

stumbling around because of how hot it was, but also because she had been drinking. And it seems possible that someone could have taken advantage of that. It's also possible that Lauren had plans to meet up with someone new that day, because when officers asked Cody about Lauren, he had mentioned that earlier in the week, she had briefly brought up meeting up with someone new, obviously as an ex-boyfriend, um,

who now has this friendship with her he wants to not push her about anything and he regrets not asking more about this back then in hindsight of course but

he didn't want to pry there was ultimately no confirmation about whether this person actually did come and pick her up it is kind of confusing because she didn't have her cell phone so i feel like it would have been kind of hard to meet up with someone without a phone but of course it's possible now there has never been any confirmation about if this person actually did come and pick her up but if they did they possibly were the last person to see her alive

or possibly could have be for her death. She basica with the clothes she had on no personal items, no m that. It was about 110 de was said to be last seen intersection of Hoopa and B Valley. The San Bernardin department joined the sear days following her disape

All their efforts were suspended on July 2nd, only four days after she went missing. And with no tracks to follow and no other leads, they said that the only way that they could continue their search efforts was if new information came up.

However, Sergeant Stafford with the Morongo Basin Station said that her disappearance was still very much being looked into, but again mentioned that new information had to come out before more could be done. Obviously, her friends and family were heartbroken, and as that first week passed, they started hanging up missing persons posters and doing everything they could to raise awareness about her disappearance.

Tonight, a desperate search is on for a high desert woman, Lauren Cho, also known as Elle, who disappeared more than a week ago now. Dozens of loved ones are searching across the Southland. They say she vanished without a trace. News Channel 3's Jake and Gracia live tonight with more on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and the search efforts that continue. Jake.

John, good evening to you and tonight friends and family have plastered missing flyers at gas stations and truck stops across the region, desperately hoping to bring their friend back to safety. We have gone thousands of miles and tirelessly went to gas stations and pasted up flyers in the low desert. The high desert. We went out to San Diego because she said in the week before she disappeared that she just wanted to go to the beach. Now one of the bigger theories when it comes to Lawrence disappearance is

was surrounding her mental health. Some of the people that lived with Lauren mentioned to police that she did struggle with her mental health and was going through sort of a stressful time when she went missing. A lot of her friends said that she had always really struggled with her self-image, her self-esteem,

And some of them even said that she expressed an interest in self-harm not long before her disappearance. However, others at the compound said that there is absolutely no way that Lauren just walked off to end her life. ♪

I'm going to be a little bit scared. I'm going to be a little bit scared. I'm going to be a little bit scared. One of her favorite things to do is find little gifts for people that are like silly small things that will make them smile up until late June. The two friends usually shared memes every day and talked every week and Caitlin heard all about the compound where Lauren was staying. She had asked me to go visit her out on this air B and B compound, and I was like a little bit

So one of Lauren's close friends at the compound named RJ said that on the morning of June 28th, she asked if he would help her do some work on her bus. He says that starting this food truck was not a dream that she would have abandoned. And it's hard to believe that someone making all these plans for the future was also planning on taking their life. Although it's possible it does happen. You can never truly know what's going on in someone's mind. So we do have to consider that.

But RJ also brought up that he doesn't believe she would have left her pet parakeet. She had this really cute little parakeet and this bird meant everything to her and would normally really worry if she was away from it for more than even a few hours. Now, this is not to say that people who are struggling with suicidal ideation are

can't walk away from things they love. It does happen. But like I said, a lot of people believe that despite struggling with her mental health, Lauren was not in a place where she wanted to end her life. And I'm sure many of you are starting to think about the fact that she lived in a really remote area. Could it have been possible that she succumbed to the elements? And a lot of people have thought maybe she was killed by some type of animal.

But if this were the case, it's most likely that there would have been some indication that something happened. So to the best of everyone's knowledge, she literally disappeared into thin air. The fact that she walked away without anything, that's really a mystery. Now, I know there were some talks of mental illness or self-harm that were thrown in the way, but you wouldn't...

Normally, a person who is looking to self-harm or, God forbid, commit suicide is not going to do it by walking into the desert.

that is not a way that most people try to commit suicide. That is something that would take a long time. You know, we're talking about California here. It's not, and it gets cold in the nighttime, but this isn't temperatures that are going to, you know, take somebody's life over, you know, a course of a short period of time. So it would have been days before she was dehydrated enough,

You know, or succumb to a lack of food. And I just don't I don't think that's the case. You know, in fact, she was even talking to somebody. She wanted to convert that bus she was working on into a food truck. She communicated earlier that day with somebody about repairs to that, which tells me that she had plans for her future. This wasn't something that she was thinking of committing suicide or doing anything like that.

I think somebody out there knows what happened to Lauren. We need to talk to that person. That person needs to come forward. As for her family, they put together a Facebook page where they shared information about her disappearance in hopes that someone would come across it and recognize Lauren. This page is actually no longer available, but I was able to find some snippets that her sister had shared on it.

At one point, she wrote, just a gentle reminder that Elle is an actual person who is fiercely loved by many. And we see the posts, comments and speculation made about her situation, her family, her friends and her mental health. So it's clear that there was a lot of commentary online going around, assuming that Lauren had ended her own life.

And of course, we can't technically rule that out. But it's a good reminder to all of us that it's dangerous to just assume that is what happened. And it is hurtful to the family when they see that type of thing being written about their loved one online. And it is completely possible that someone did something to her. So finally, on August 2nd, 2021, the Morongo Basin Sheriff's Department put out a press release saying that additional search efforts had recently been conducted.

On June 24th, a fixed-wing aircraft conducted aerial searches over the mountains where she had last been seen and also extended several miles beyond that area. Then on July 31st, detectives with Morongo Basin and search and rescue crews executed a search warrant of the Ben Mar Trail area of Yucca Valley. And there were also seven canine dogs involved in this search. They also searched the Airbnb compound. However, nothing turned up in any of their search efforts.

And because of this, the narrative that she voluntarily went missing only grew, despite her friends and family saying that she would never do that. And as time went on, there was less and less interest in her case from the public.

and because she was a korean-american woman many of her friends and family felt that there was a lack of interest from the media when it came to coverage for her case around this time a lot of people brought up that there was a major lack of coverage for her case and others like daniel robinson for example who i actually sat down with his father david on my podcast mile higher and i'll have that link below it's another very interesting case that needs attention but some

But something I found interesting was even though Lauren's family was frustrated that she wasn't getting enough media coverage, they actually didn't want the public comparing her case to Gabby's. Because even though both of them at the time were missing, there were very stark differences in the circumstances surrounding their disappearances. And this isn't to say that they didn't want coverage, more coverage than they were getting, because they certainly did.

But the idea of pinning the story of two missing women against one another just wasn't what the Cho family wanted. It's so frustrating looking back, too, because I hadn't even heard of Lauren's case until recently. Obviously, there are over 90,000 people missing in this country, and it's hard to keep up with all of them, but...

It's frustrating hearing that they needed more coverage and I could have helped and I just didn't know about it. However, what was really cool here is that because so many people were vocalizing the lack of coverage for minority cases during Gabby's disappearance, which obviously people didn't want less coverage for Gabby, but they wanted that same coverage for everyone. And because people spoke so loudly about this and really, you

started you know tweeting at media stations and commenting on facebook and making their voices heard that we want coverage for everyone the media actually did pick up coverage for lauren because of it and to me this really symbolizes the power of our voices if it weren't for thousands of people pointing out the lack of coverage for some people compared to others it's possible that lauren's story may have been forgotten and of course there will always be people who

think true crime is weird. Don't understand it. Don't get why people are interested in these cases. But I truly believe that the true crime community is the reason that so many more cases, especially minority cases, are getting coverage. And we've also seen so many examples of cases being pushed forward and things actually getting done

because people are taking action and making these stories known. I say it all the time, but the power of the people is huge when it comes to these cases. I mean, I've seen it myself from my audience, how impactful you guys can be when you take action and call

Email, tweet, representatives, lawyers, DAs, police departments. It just really restores my faith in humanity when I see you guys taking an action because of my coverage or someone else's coverage.

And I think it's awesome. And change is possible in numbers. And even though Lauren's story, unfortunately, doesn't have a happy ending, I do believe that so many people putting pressure on the police at the time and on the media to cover her case more really made a difference in how much the police cared about finding her. None of it makes sense to me. None of it makes sense to any of us.

Those who know Lauren Cho well are desperate to know where she may be. Len Girardi went to high school with Lauren in New Jersey, and they later worked together tattooing and piercing. All of her friends and family know that she wouldn't have just walked away from her life. She wouldn't have just evaporated. She wouldn't have just disappeared like this. But the 30-year-old, also known as Elle, has disappeared, and there's been no sign of her since June 28th.

You don't know what you don't know. So if you have anything that you think might be helpful, we absolutely want to hear from you. Now, as I just said, Lauren's story, unfortunately, does not have a happy ending. And that brings us to September of 2021. A specialized investigation division from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department began helping aid in search efforts. And finally, on October 9th, Lauren Cho's remains were found.

Lauren's body was found in some pretty rugged terrain in Yucca Valley's open desert and was only a few miles away from where she had last been seen. And the fact that she wasn't far away from where she was last seen leads me and many others to believe that foul play was involved. Considering there were aerial searches and canine units used in the investigation, I have a hard time believing that she died in the location that she was found.

Obviously, this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that she likely was killed somewhere else and then returned to that area, although investigators have never confirmed this. And unfortunately, this was a very hot time of year. There were extreme temperatures, which led to extreme decomposition. So police have yet to say her cause and manner of death. From the desert's news leader, this is Breaking News.

Thanks for joining us today at noon. I'm Jeff Stahl. We are following and learning and more about breaking news. In fact, we've been covering in Yucca Valley. Authorities have confirmed today human remains found in an open desert area October 9th were those of a missing New Jersey woman, Lauren Cho.

News Channel 3's Crystal Jimenez is live in studio today at noon with the very latest developments in that case. Crystal. That's right, Jeff. So many people had hoped for a different outcome to this case, but unfortunately the search for 30-year-old Lauren Cho has concluded. But the investigation continues. There still isn't a cause of death yet.

A toxicology report still remains to be completed. Right now, San Bernardino sheriffs aren't releasing any more information related to this case until these tests are complete and until they have more information on her death. Now, there's been a lot of talk in this case about toxicology reports and if maybe that could tell us more about Lauren's death. However, people have been waiting on that information for a long time and we still haven't seen anything. I mean, it's been a year and a half since she was found and...

It's possible that they did get toxicology reports back and that police are working on looking into new leads.

And there's a lot of curiosity about this online. I mean, people want to know the results of the toxicology report because it could likely be a determining factor over what happened to Lauren. And if you are one of those people who believe that Lauren walked away with the intention on not returning, which is possible, I just ask that you consider your word choice if you comment below.

Even though we don't know enough to say what happened to her just yet, I can only imagine how hurtful it would be for her friends and family to read comments saying that she did this to herself.

And so until we know for sure, I just ask that we remain respectful. Now, as for Cody, he has never been considered a person of interest in her death, mainly because it would have been physically impossible given the timeline for him to have done anything to her. And I want to make it clear that he did fully cooperate with investigators throughout the whole process. I wish I had more information to share with you guys, but I felt like Lauren's story was

worth telling. And again, just before I end this video, I wanted to remind you all that Lauren's family has chosen to remain pretty private. And I ask that you all respect that and not try to pry for more information about them. But I do hope that you guys will leave, you know, words of encouragement and love for her family members, because I know that that is very helpful when they do see that support.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.