Human remains found in California desert confirmed to be missing New Jersey woman Lauren Cho
CBSN
Human remains found earlier this month in a southern California desert have been confirmed Thursday to be Lauren Cho, a 30-year-old New Jersey woman who went missing in June, the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Department said.
Cho disappeared during a cross-country trip to California and was last seen in Yucca Valley, CBS New York reported. She was reportedly under mental distress when she walked away from a resort where she had been staying with her boyfriend.
On October 9, investigators discovered "unidentified human remains" in "the rugged terrain of the open desert of Yucca Valley," officials at the time said in a statement. Her remains were then transported to the coroner's division of the sheriff's office for identification.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.