A 30-year-old woman is missing in America, and so it’s time that we keep an eye out so that we can bring her home. It’s the least we can do.
It was last June when Lauren Cho walked out of the Airbnb that was located down a dirt road in California’s Yucca Valley, and she hasn’t been seen since.
Although there have been multiple searches and an increasing interest in her case, Cho’s disappearance is still a mystery.
Cho has many friends and family, and they are all desperate to know where she might be.
âNone of it makes sense to me. None of it makes sense to any of us,â said Len Gherardi, who went to school with Cho and then later was one of her co-workers in a tattooing and piercing shop.
âAll of her friends and family know that she wouldnât have just walked away from her life, she wouldnât have just evaporated,â Gherardi said of the 30-year-old Cho, who is also known as âelâ. âShe wouldnât have just disappeared like this.â
Cho’s case was even ultimately detailed on the Missing in America television series. Cho’s ex-boyfriend reported her missing on June 28th at around 5 p.m. and he told authorities that they had an argument three hours prior to her disappearance and then she left the AirBNB where they were staying.
Later, the ex-boyfriend participated in a phone interview with the Hi-Desert Star, and the ex-boyfriend said that “there was a 10-minute window there and she evaporated.”
“She basically walked away with just the clothes she had on. No cell phone, no personal items, no money, no nothing,” San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department spokesman Mara Rodriguez said.
At the time of her disappearance, Cho was wearing jean shorts and a yellow t-shirt. She was last seen on the remote intersection of Hoopa Road and Benmar Trail in the Yucca Valley, and that is one place that would be terrible for a person to go missing at because the terrain and the temperatures would be unforgiving.
âItâs very hot out in the summer months and even in the evening,â Rodriguez said. âSo being out there with no water, nothing to make contact with anybody, thatâs going to be an issue.â
The housekeeper took part in an exclusive interview with News Nation, and denied that there could have been a possibility of foul play on the property.
âPeople show up from different countries. People show up, whoever they are, they just get along,â Traci Cloud, who has been a housekeeper at the compound for nearly five years, said. âNothing violent? No, never. never, never.â
Cloud said that she believes she saw Cho before she had left the compound.
âEvidently they had started drinking in the daytime, early in the day or whatever, and she had drank too much,â Cloud said. âWhen she wanted to leave [her then-boyfriend] wouldnât let her take the vehicle and evidently, thatâs when she got upset.â
Cho and the ex-boyfriend were a couple when they traveled across the country earlier this year, and they specifically targeted the area around Joshua Tree National Park as a great place for a fresh start.
Cho had dreams of running a food truck.
She was interested in singing and performing in her earlier years.
Cho was attending Westminster Choir College in New Jersey when she became friends with Kaitlyn Borden.
âOne of our favorite things to do is find little gifts for people,â Borden said. âSilly small things that will make them smile.â
It was up until late June that the two friends had kept in touch, talking at least weekly and sharing memes almost every day.
Borden said that she had indeed heard of the AirBNB where Cho was staying while she was in California.
âShe had asked me to go visit her out on this Airbnb compound. And I said Iâm a little bit scared about going to the desert in the middle of summer. Iâm very pale,â Borden laughed.
Lauren Cho and her boyfriend at the time were getting sick and tired of the Los Angeles area and they targeted this Joshua Tree location for a fresh start. However, either way this AirBNB is known for more than just a direct exposure to the sun.
This AirBNB location is fond of touting their “open” and “liberal” environment at this collection of vintage trailers.
The owner of this AirBNB describes it as “adults only” and “clothing optional.”
The housekeeper went on to describe most of the locals as “all musicians, artists, or sculptors.”
âTheyâre all very mellow, Cloud said. âTheyâre like a different breed of people. They really are.â
This probably meant that Cho fit in really well with this community while she was there, because she was known to her friends and family to have both artistic and eclectic tastes.
âHer purse that she carries around is just like a rubber chicken. Itâs like a rubber chicken purse,â her high school friend Gherardi said. âAnd thatâs what she carried every day.â
The sheriff’s office has their own special investigations unit focusing on Cho’s case. There have been several air and ground searches over the past three months, including at the AirBNB compound. They still have not determined if there is any evidence of foul play.
Authorities continue to appeal to those who might have been at the AirBNB around the time of Cho’s disappearance last June to come forward if they know anything.
âYou donât know what you donât know,â Rodriguez said. âSo if you have anything that you think might be helpful, we absolutely want to hear from you.â
âGo ahead and do the right thing,â Gherardi said in her appeal to anyone who might have information. âCome forward and maybe talk about what they noticed or saw. And letâs get the real narrative of what happened that day.â
The Cho family has maintained a public Facebook page, but they are not giving interviews.
When a local news media outlet reached out to Cho’s ex-boyfriend, he quickly brushed them off by saying, “no comment.”
The NewsNation is a new segment that is devoted to finding missing persons throughout the United States, and even though they had just been established, they have already gotten thousands of tips on this and other cases as well.
UPDATE: on October 28th, the Missing in America team found the remains of Lauren Cho in the desert near where the AirBNB is situated.