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Body found in search for Lauren Cho in Yucca Valley desert

An undated photo of Lauren Cho released by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department

Searchers in Southern California have found a body in the Yucca Valley desert, two months after Lauren Cho disappeared in the area.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Sunday that the human remains were found in rugged terrain in the open desert on Saturday. Now the coroner’s office is working to identify the remains and determine a cause of death.

The sheriff’s office had searched by air and on foot for Cho, 30, who walked away from a rental house on June 28.

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Her case is one of many involving people of color that don’t get much public attention. Complaints about a phenomenon known as “missing white woman syndrome” soared during the search for Gabby Petito, a white 22-year-old whose body was found in Wyoming after she vanished during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend that she chronicled on social media.

The sheriff's office said the identification process could take several weeks and that no further information will be released until those results are confirmed.

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