3 hours ago
1
A 19-year-old college freshman has been identified as one of the hikers whose remains were found on California’s Mount Baldy on Monday.
The San Bernardino county sheriff announced this week that Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, a resident of Seal Beach, California, was discovered along a mountain trail known as the Devil’s Backbone.
The sheriffs’ department said they responded to reports of a hiker who had fallen “approximately 500 feet”, and that his “friend and hiking companion hiked to an area with cellular service and provided GPS coordinates to assist rescuers”. Rescue crews arrived on foot but a helicopter airlift was inhibited due to “severe winds”. An air medic was eventually lowered down and confirmed Casanova was deceased, the department said.
Two other hikers were also found dead, but have yet to be identified, and Casanova’s cause of death has not been determined by the county coroner.
Mount Baldy, which rises more than 10,000ft and sits just east of Los Angeles, is a popular hiking spot that is also known for treacherous conditions, particularly in the winter.
Casanova was a student at Santa Clara University in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a statement his family made to KABC, and is described by his loved ones as “an avid sailor and outdoorsman”.
“We are destroyed by the loss of our beloved Marcus. He was a graduate of Los Alamitos High, a freshman at Santa Clara University’s business school, and an avid sailor and outdoorsman … It is difficult to explain the pain and anguish we are going through and ask for privacy as we try to find our way,” the statement continues.
Beginning on Thursday, the US Forest Service announced that seven trails on Mount Baldy, including the Devil’s Backbone, will be closed until next Wednesday for the safety of the public.
The deaths occurred near where the actor Julian Sands died three years ago. Sands, who starred in A Room With a View and Leaving Las Vegas, was reported missing after setting off on a solo hike in January 2023. His body was found five months later.
And in January 2023, the same month Sands went missing, another 15 hikers either got lost, were injured or died on the mountain.
The same day Casanova and other hikers were found, the San Bernardino sheriff’s department announced that it rescued two other hikers – two men, ages 18 and 31 – from another trail on Mount Baldy. One of the hikers was hurt after falling more than 100ft from the trail.
In October, three people were also rescued near the same trail where the deceased hikers were found.
