The body of a woman believed to be a 50-year-old hiker who went missing during a heat wave Sunday was found at Black Mountain Open Space Park Monday morning a short distance from a road, officials said.
The discovery was made by a crew in a helicopter around 9:15 a.m. as a second day of searching for Diem Le Nguyen was under way.
Police Lt. Daniel Meyer said the body was found off a trail, near Carmel Mountain Road and Via Rimini.
“She was a quarter-mile away from a population, from reaching a street,” he said. “She nearly made it out.”
He said a hat was found a short time before the body was spotted.
“Obviously it’s a very painful moment for the family and friends,” Meyer said. “It’s really important for the community to come together and support this family as they go through this traumatic time.”
The case now becomes a death investigation that will be headed by the county Medical Examiner’s Office, which will confirm the woman’s identity and cause of death.
Nguyen went missing Sunday morning after she had gone hiking with a large group on the Nighthawk Trail in the Black Mountain Open Space Park in Rancho Peñasquitos.
Nguyen went on alone after the group — around 100 family, friends and others — turned back halfway up the trail around 8 a.m. She continued toward the peak while the rest returned to the base of the trail, Meyer said.
Nguyen sent her sister a photo someone snapped of her at the summit next to a trail sign around 9:30 a.m. — and then called that same sister at 10:08 a.m. in distress, saying she was very hot and needed water, police said.
The family called 911 to report Nguyen missing.
Temperatures reached the low 90s in the park on Sunday. The National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory for the valley areas of San Diego County.
Because of the high temperatures and her call for help, police launched a search for the woman around 11:30 a.m. Park rangers, police, search-and-rescue teams from the Sheriff’s Department and dogs were used in the search, which continued into the night. Officers also used drones to fly over the park to search for her.
Three helicopters — one each from the Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department — flew more than five hours searching for Nguyen until about 1 a.m., Meyer said. Searching resumed Monday around 7:30 a.m., with the effort switching to brushy areas off the park trails.
Trackers were able to ping her cellphone but weren’t able to pinpoint her precise location. They also sent a locator message to her phone, which allows the recipient to push a button and share live GPS data, but Nguyen didn’t respond.
Black Mountain Open Space Park, which is owned and managed by the city of San Diego, is a 2,300-acre park that includes chaparral and sage covered hills, ridges and canyons. The centerpiece of the park is the 1,554-foot summit of Black Mountain.
