{"id":676708,"date":"2026-03-23T20:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676708\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:03:15","slug":"hiker-40-missing-since-saturday-found-dead-on-el-cajon-mountain-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676708\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiker, 40, missing since Saturday found dead on El Cajon Mountain trail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/412EPX-1-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/412EPX-1.jpg\" alt=\"412EPX helicopter. Photo courtesy of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.\" class=\"wp-image-253812\"  \/><\/a>A San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office helicopter. (Photo courtesy of the department)<\/p>\n<p>A 40-year-old man who went missing while hiking was found dead in East County, authorities said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The man was reported missing Sunday by his family after he failed to return from a hike on El Cajon Mountain in Lakeside, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sdsheriff.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The unidentified hiker began his trek around 8 a.m. Saturday on a trailhead located in the 13700 block of Blue Sky Ranch Road.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the sheriff\u2019s search and rescue Unit, deputies and detectives from the Lakeside sheriff\u2019s substation began searching the area for the missing hiker on Sunday. A sheriff\u2019s helicopter crew also assisted in the search effort.<\/p>\n<p>The body of the missing hiker was found near one of the hiking trails just east of the trailhead around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the sheriff\u2019s office reported.<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office will determine the cause of death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office helicopter. (Photo courtesy of the department) A 40-year-old man who went missing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":676709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,285188,7923,35201,3549,160002,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-676708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-el-cajon-mountain","tag-fatality","tag-hiker","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-sheriff","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}