Hikers in Big Sur discovered a woman’s naked body deep in the woods on a popular hiking trail.
Authorities responded to an April 9 call after hikers found the body in the Los Padres National Forest. In a statement released on Monday, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) identified the woman as 37-year-old Joanna Ruth Shields.
According to witnesses, Shields had multiple injuries including a head wound and neck cuts.
“I didn’t see any blood. She was pale. She had markings around her neck. I don’t want to say choking marks,” one witness told KSBW. “And then when the firefighter lifted the jacket, he confirmed that she had a big gash on her head.”
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The hikers that found her also claimed they encountered a man who claimed to be the Shields’ friend and that he “appeared to be scared, nervous and shocked.”
He allegedly told the witnesses that he found Shields naked and face down in water after being apart from her for a few minutes.
MCSO is actively investigating the death as suspicious “because we don’t know what the cause of death is,” Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Andres Rosas told Monterey County Now.
However, Rosas also cautioned the public from jumping to conclusions and claimed that everyone present at the scene has been cooperative.
“At this point, nobody’s in custody. Everybody has been cooperative. We’ve never said this is a murder,” Rosas told Fox News Digital. “There is no danger as it relates to this case.”
Rosas also insinuated that witness reports may have been overzealous. “They did paint a very vivid picture, they used the words atrocious,” he said.
“Sometimes things are not as they appear,” he concluded.
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MCSO Coroner Tina Nieto performed an autopsy on Shields on Monday, but her official cause and manner of death are pending the results of toxicology tests.
Shields was an avid skateboarder and beloved in the skating community.
“Joanna was extremely friendly with everyone, and I don’t think she had a single enemy,” Brandon Devroede, a former co-worker of Joanna’s and operation manager at Evolve Skateboards USA, told FOX 5 KSWB-TV. “She was willing to help everybody.”
