The investigation continues into a missing Chinese national and her friend, a former Navy SEAL from Morongo Valley.
The last update on the case came in September, about two months after the disappearance of Fan Jin and John Root Fitzpatrick.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials reported that the body of 52-year-old veteran Fitzpatrick was found last month in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Mara Rodriguez told the Daily Press on Wednesday that there was no current information on Jin’s whereabouts and the missing person case remains open.
The 47-year-old was last heard from in July.
Fang Jin
After meeting a man, later identified as Fitzpatrick, online and corresponding with him for six months, Jin decided to meet him, her family said.
“Jin did her best to check the man’s background, commission a background report, and verify the man’s identity, military service, and employment history,” said a GoFundMe account created by Kyle Zhou, a friend the family, was set up.
Jin flew from China to Los Angeles on July 14.
After arriving, she boarded a train from Los Angeles to the Palm Springs area. The next day, she was picked up by a man she had hired for a tour of the Morongo Basin area, sheriff’s officials said.
Jin had planned to camp in an undisclosed area in the Morongo Basin, which is southeast of the Lucerne and Johnson valleys in the High Desert, police said.
On July 16, the couple was seen on surveillance video purchasing toiletries at the Marine Corps Exchange at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, according to a search warrant filed by San Bernardino County Superior Court.
The man took her to Joshua Tree National Park and then “allegedly went camping with her” in “a small town in the desert,” her family said.
The couple reportedly went on at least one hike in the desert. Jin also stayed with Fitzpatrick at Roadrunner Mobile Home Park in Morongo Valley.
Jin continued to send photos to her family in China, including one of Fitzpatrick’s driver’s license and another of him with his blue Toyota pickup truck, according to the search warrant.
On July 22, Jin’s family stopped receiving photos and messages, she stopped answering her phone, and her social media posts were stopped. According to her family, her phone showed that it stopped working on July 25.
Jin’s girlfriend filed a missing person’s report with the sheriff on July 26 because she couldn’t reach her. Jin had booked a return flight in October and her family said she had no plans to stay in the United States
John Fitzpatrick
According to the man’s longtime friend and military colleague, Darryl Hoss, Fitzpatrick was reported missing on July 30, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Hoss reported his friend missing when Fitzpatrick failed to return from an extended camping trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the Union-Tribune said.
According to military records reviewed by the Union-Tribune, Fitzpatrick was honorably discharged from active duty in 2010 as a senior sergeant, master parachutist and instructor who had completed multiple deployments overseas.
In 2020, Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to assault and was later tried in Veterans Treatment Court, which indicated underlying issues, according to the Hi-Desert Star. He eventually completed the program and the charges were dismissed this year.
Investigators said Fitzpatrick’s vehicle, a blue Toyota Tacoma truck, was captured on camera July 22 in Thermal, south of Indio and about 60 miles north of where his body was later found.
Welfare Control in the Morongo Valley
According to the search warrant, officers conducted a welfare check on Fitzpatrick’s mobile home at 29 Palms Highway in Morongo Valley on August 1.
Investigators visited Fitzpatrick’s mobile home and discovered the front door was open. Investigators went inside to see if the couple was inside but found no one.
Investigators found items belonging to Jin and an “odor of decomposition” in the home, the court document said.
Sheriff’s officers also discovered and seized a red suitcase containing Jin’s belongings. Also her straw hat, sandals, green shoes, an SD card from a Ring camera, a green helmet and a white handbag among her things.
Officers also found receipts from the Marine Corps Exchange.
According to the search warrant, Fitzpatrick was seen on a store surveillance camera buying duct tape on July 3. At that time, he was seen with a white/Hispanic male leaving the store with the items they had purchased, court records state.
A month later, sheriff’s investigators executed a second search warrant at the mobile home, during which they took three iPhones.
Fitzpatrick’s body discovered
Law enforcement officials contacted Fitzpatrick’s family to inform them that his body was discovered in Harper Canyon south of State Route 78, the Union-Tribune reported.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released any information about the investigation.
Jin is described as Asian, is 1.75 meters tall and weighs almost 50 kilograms. She has black hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Detective Tyler Bengard at 760-366-4175 or Sheriff’s Dispatch at 909-387-8413.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz can be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz.
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