Overview
- Joanna Ruth Shields, 37, was found by hikers on April 9 near Sykes Hot Springs in the Los Padres National Forest, and deputies recovered her body the next day.
- The sheriff’s office said markings seen on Shields’ neck were consistent with insect bites, not strangulation, and officials reported no information supporting an earlier claim of a skull fracture.
- An autopsy is complete and the coroner is awaiting toxicology results that could take six to eight weeks, so the cause and manner of death remain undetermined.
- Detectives are treating the case as a suspicious death, have made no arrests, report no known threat to the public, and say people at the scene have been cooperating.
- Hikers told reporters they encountered a man who identified himself as Shields’ friend, and as the investigation proceeds friends and the skateboarding community are mourning her and raising funds for funeral costs.