UPDATED: PALM SPRINGS: Body found on hiking trail ID’d as 60-year-old, San Jacinto resident

UPDATED: Friday, Dec. 22, 11:30 a.m.

PALM SPRINGS — Officials have identified the body of a man discovered off a trail in the San Jacinto Mountains as a San Jacinto resident. The victim’s body was found over Thanksgiving weekend, near Palm Springs, last month

Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s officials identified 60-year-old, Gregory Ferguson, as the man whose body was found Saturday, Nov. 25. Officials did not list Ferguson’s date or time of death, pending further investigation; however, he was pronounced dead when his body was found by officers and a search and rescue team at 3:42 p.m.

Palm Springs Police and other emergency first responders were dispatched to the area about 2 p.m., after someone called 911 to report the discovery.

Volunteers from the Palm Springs Mounted Police Search & Rescue group were summoned to assist in locating the victim’s body.

“The Palm Springs Mounted Police Search and Rescue were called to search, locate and recover a possible dead body somewhere off trail in the Palm Springs mountains,” a PSMP-SAR representative wrote in a Facebook post the day of the search and body recovery. “Given good coordinates, members of the PSMP-SAR were able to trail-blaze and locate the individual.”

Once Ferguson’s body was located, Coroner’s officials were summoned and responded to the scene to assist in the death investigation.

PSMP-SAR members were later able to transport the victim’s body down the mountain, where Coroner’s officials took possession of the man’s body.

Palm Springs PD is handling the investigation.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, who recently moved from Riverside County to Shasta County, runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.