09-05-2025
Mystery as missing couple's skeletons found nearly a year later by hiker
The skeletal remains of a couple were stumbled upon by a hiker nearly a year after they mysteriously vanished.
José Luis Perez, 64, and his wife Stephanie Elizabeth Perez, 65, were reported missing in July, after losing contact with their family and friends, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office in California.
On Sunday, a hiker around Sunrise Trial and Autumn Trail in Thousand Oaks called the sheriff's office after discovering 'what appeared to be skeletonized human remains', stated the agency on Facebook.
The county medical examiner's office confirmed that the remains belonged to two humans, one male and one female. They were identified as the Perezes, and both died of gunshot wounds to the head, the medical examiner determined.
Stephanie's manner of death was homicide – and her husband appeared to have killed himself.
The sheriff's office believes it was an 'isolated incident'.
Questions are swirling about the couple's disappearance and deaths.
Police officers first did a welfare check when Stephanie's employer requested it on July 24 because she did not log on remotely for work, reported the Simi Valley Acorn. They were not found.
Two days later, Stephanie's childhood friend pleaded for a second check, and officers with the Simi Valley Police Department again could not find the couple. Their phones, IDs, passports, money and vehicle were left at home. Search efforts for them with drones deployed were unsuccessful. More Trending
Officers are not sure if the couple got to the hiking trail area using a rideshare service or went by food.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the sheriff's office.
Thousand Oaks is about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The couple's remains were found more than eight months after a frozen corpse discovered in a cave along the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania about 50 years ago was identified as a man of British origin.
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