Who failed Lauren Cho, Miya Marcano, and Gabby Petito?
Marine killed in training on base, search for missing Twentynine Palms man continues, and online outage takes down MDLT plant sale
Hello from California’s high desert. I hope you enjoyed the au natural mud bath we got earlier this week. I guess it turns out the wind storms and rain storms really shouldn’t mix.
Earlier this week, law enforcement and investigative officials announced they found human remains near the last-known location of 30-year-old Lauren Cho, a New Jersey resident who went missing from Yucca Valley in June. Officials are working to identify the remains, a process that could take several weeks, and will update the public as soon as possible.
This is a horrific ending to the ongoing search efforts that largely waned over the summer until national attention turned to Gabby Petito, a New York woman who disappeared while on a cross-country trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie. Petito’s remains were found outside Grand Teton National Park last month, and her cause of death was released by the county coroner Tuesday (homicide by manual strangulation). Laundrie is still missing and has not been charged with anything other than credit card fraud in the case.
In a press conference Tuesday, Teton County Coroner Brent Blue said that the case became a “media circus,” and emphasized that other victims of domestic violence should receive the same level of attention as the 22-year-old blogger. In a previous issue, the Dispatch pointed out that this seemed like a case of “missing white woman syndrome,” a phenomenon in the US where missing persons cases tend to garner national attention if a young white woman is involved. Many other cases, like Cho’s, remain afterthoughts or are confined to local coverage at best.
Without the renewed attention, however, it is likely that Cho’s case would still be open and her loved ones would still be looking for answers and closure. Just a few days before the remains were found in Yucca Valley, Florida college student Miya Marcano’s remains were also found after also receiving additional attention after the Petito frenzy. It’s a painful reminder that, especially in missing persons cases involving young women of color, attention and pressure really do make a difference. While neither Cho’s nor Marcano’s cases have been explicitly labeled domestic violence, both carry implications of a system set up to fail when it comes to protecting women.
I am not going to go down that what-if rabbit hole because, honestly, I’ve done enough of that already and it is not a pleasant experience. I do not want to think about what could have happened had the department searched more aggressively this summer or, conversely, what would have happened had the Petito case not caused a national stir. There’s so much to be angry and sad about that I do not wish to add any more cause.
But. I do think there is an extremely good case for rethinking how we save victims of domestic violence. I think there is a good case for law enforcement to receive training on how to identify and communicate with victims. I think there is a case for intervention training and “how to talk about DV” seminars in communities where domestic disputes are often handled with 911 calls.
I think there is a hell of a lot more we could have done for these women, and it is devastating to go through each and every time they could have been saved. If there was ever a time to stop looking for band-aid solutions to endemic problems, it sure feels like that’s now.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach out to the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY for Deaf/Hard of Hearing). The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available to anyone who has been affected by relationship abuse, including those who are currently in abusive relationships, those who are working to heal, friends or family of victims and survivors, and anyone in the community who has questions about domestic violence. Phone services are provided in more than 200 languages.
And now, onto this week’s news:
A marine was killed in a training accident on base Sunday after suffering a small arms gunshot wound
Lance Cpl. Jonothan F. Barnette died Sunday during Service Level Training Exercise 1-22, which began last week.
Barnette suffered a small arms gunshot wound, the Hi-Desert Star reported, and died shortly after.
1st Lt. Sydney Murkins said the cause of the incident is under investigation. More information will be available when the investigation is complete.
Barnette was a rifleman with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, in the 2nd Marine Division. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and unborn child.
His friend, David Avila, started a GoFundMe for Barnette’s family. You can donate to the campaign here.
Sheriff’s deputies are searching for Twentynine Palms resident Jervon Winston, 28, who was reported missing on Tuesday, October 5.
Winston was last seen at his Sunnyvale Drive residence around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, according to deputies. He lives on the 7300 block of Sunnyvale.
Winston does not own a vehicle, so investigators say he may have left on foot or in someone else’s vehicle. He is described as a Black man who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds and has “love” and “hate” tattooed on his hands.
Anyone with information about Winston’s whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriff’s department dispatch at (760) 956-5001.
Mojave Desert Land Trust’s annual plant sale was such a hit that it closed early due to technical issues
The Mojave Desert Land Trust’s annual plant sale kicked off Monday, but quickly went offline due to technical issues.
The sale was entirely online for the second year in a row due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the demand far outpaced the organization’s web capabilities, it announced in a Facebook post on Monday.
“Despite every effort we made in advance of the sale to prepare our website for the influx of traffic, it was not enough,” the organization posted when announcing that the sale had been suspended while their team looks through the orders that went through early Monday.
Mojave Desert Land Trust will reach out to customers whose orders went through to schedule a pick-up in the coming weeks. The sale will not resume at this time.
Pupdate of the week: Alice absolutely loves the cooler temperatures and is more than happy to spend the entire day in the backyard munching sticks. Oliver, on the other hand, is more content to burrow under a blanket on the couch inside.
Trail tip of the week: Things are picking back up around here, so consider this your semi-regular reminder to only park in designated parking areas in lots or near trailheads. Every weekend I see cars lined up on the side of the road and it hurts my heart a bit to think of all the plants they just plowed over. The Park Service has been really on top of things recently, but there’s only so much they can do once it’s truly busy. So please do your part!
Book of the week: I’m currently tearing through Matrix by Lauren Groff and it is a fantastic fall read. It follows the life of seventeen-year-old Marie de France, who is sent to work as a prioress at an impoverished abbey after being cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine. I’m not usually one for historical fiction, but Matrix is an incredibly well-written and beautiful exploration of women’s creativity in the 12th Century. This summary line alone was enough to get me to add to cart: “Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects.”
Show of the week: Well, it looks like the MLB playoffs just got interesting. The five-game series between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers is indeed going to Game 5 on Thursday, and the winner will play the Atlanta Braves starting Saturday. Sorry to all you Dodgers fans, but my household is rooting for the Braves.
Small business of the week
It’s been a busy few weeks for the new businesses in the Morongo Basin! One of our new neighbors is Out There Bar in Twentynine Palms. The cocktail bar is rumored to have a heavy pour at a reasonable price at the old Fine Line cocktail bar building near the Joshua Tree National Park entrance. There are some really rad murals, and I recommend you ask the bartenders for the story behind the dedication to Gram Parsons.
Out There Bar is located at 73839 Twentynine Palms Highway in Twentynine Palms. They are “usually open,” according to their Instagram page, which really means 5 p.m. until midnight Monday through Wednesdays 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 12 p.m. until midnight on Sunday.
That’s it for this week! I hope you have a great weekend and are able to get outside!
- Megan