{"id":233041,"date":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/233041\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","slug":"hiker-40-missing-since-saturday-found-dead-on-el-cajon-mountain-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/233041\/","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.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/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":2,"featured_media":233042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[105640,12007,19082,74,76,75,12129],"class_list":["post-233041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-el-cajon-mountain","tag-fatality","tag-hiker","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-sheriff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}