Body Recovered from San Diego Co. Anza Borrego Cave

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The California State Parks Service and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department requested via mutual aid for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue (SAR) – Underground Unit to assist with the recovery of a human body in the Mud Caves of the Anza-Borrego wilderness area, in eastern San Diego County.

The body was located on Saturday, May 5, when members of a family of a missing male hiker were searching the area and lowered a camera into an inaccessible, nine-inch fissure inside the "Hidden Cave."

Efforts made on Monday, May 7, 2012, by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Cave Team to recover the body were unsuccessful and resulted in the request for the specially trained mine rescue team members of the Underground Unit of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to make an attempt.

The body was wedged at the bottom of a cone area, surrounded by silt and debris making recovery a very difficult and dangerous mission. The LASD recovery team located a small area below the body where debris removal from below could be initiated by the reserve sheriff's deputies, civilian volunteers, and full-time Emergency Services Detail paramedic deputies.

This recovery operation was extremely arduous, with the danger of a cave-in always a threat. Besides using small hand tools, an electric chisel was brought to the scene to assist with the excavation. At about 8:00PM, Tuesday, after eleven hours of tedious work, the body was freed and the LASD teams removed the body through the cave’s main entrance, 350 feet away.

Participating in the mission were the Montrose and Sierra Madre LASD Search and Rescue (SAR) teams, along with a cadre from the LASD Emergency Services Detail of the Special Enforcement Bureau.

Family members, the Parks Service and the San Diego Sheriff’s Department were extremely grateful to the LASD teams for allowing closure of this tragic situation.

"When sometimes a rescue turns into a recovery, we still don't give up," said Mike Leum, LASD Reserve Chief of Search and Rescue. "By recovering the body of a family's loved one, we are able to provide closure for a family who has suffered a tragic loss. We would want the same closure for our own families if it happened to any one of us."