Dad keeps hope of finding missing son alive by joining searchers at Joshua Tree

Gilbert Orbeso has spent 13 of the last 15 days hiking about four miles a day, slowly combing the desert landscape, undeterred by the unrelenting heat and humidity at Joshua Tree National Park where his son and friend seem to have vanished.

“Everything seems like it’s in slow motion, I think because of the waiting, the anticipation,” he said Saturday morning, standing outside the visitor center on Park Boulevard where he was getting ready to join the park’s team for another four-hour search.

Officials say that Joseph Orbeso, 21, and Rachel Nguyen, 20, both from Westminster, entered Joshua Tree National Park at 6:45 a.m. on July 27.

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On July 28, they were reported missing when they didn’t make the 11 a.m. checkout time at the nearby Airbnb where they were staying. Their belongings were still in their room when the property owner checked, said George Land, spokesman for Joshua Tree National Park.

Their car was later found parked near the Maze Loop trailhead, where a large poster with their photos and information about the two missing people now greets hikers.

To get through the days, “I think a lot about the positives in my son,” Orbeso said. “His smiles and how it will be when we find him. Going on these searches helps, I can’t just sit around and do nothing.”

Frustration comes from so few clues as to what happened to the pair, despite all that the Joshua Tree National Park Search and Rescue team and various other agencies have done with people, dogs, planes, helicopters and drones – as well as friends and family, Orbeso said.

Orbeso last saw his son on July 26.

“We said goodbye and his friend Rachel picked him up,” he said, adding the trip was to celebrate her birthday.

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He and his son often text each other, but on that July 27, Orbeso said his phone wasn’t working right and he doesn’t know if he may have missed any attempts by his son to reach him.

The last ping from Joseph Orbeso’s phone was recorded at 4 p.m. July 27 from inside the park, officials said.

Orbeso described his son – the older of his two children – as outgoing and sociable. “He loves video games and being outdoors. He is a people person; he loves to network.”

Orbeso doesn’t know much about Nguyen, saying the two had dated for just a short time but remained friends. Her family could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Orbeso said his son is not an avid hiker but had been to Joshua Tree two weeks before with another friend, though he didn’t know if they did any hiking.

Over the past two weeks, Orbeso – also not an avid hiker – has trekked across Joshua Tree’s varying types of terrain, often going beyond where park searchers were hiking but with them close by and monitoring a GPS device they put on him, he said.

“We have a lot of people – a lot of people – praying for us,” and that keeps him going, said Orbeso, adding that his wife and daughter have been with him at the park as well, but unable to do the hikes.

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Orbeso was back at the park Saturday morning after taking a couple of days off to rest, joined by about a dozen of his son’s friends, including Austin Young who met Joseph Orbeso when they were in sixth grade.

They were brought together by the trading card game yu-gi-oh and became instant lifelong friends, said Young, who has driven from the Los Angeles area the past two Saturdays to help with the search.

“He is more like a brother to me than anything else,” Young said. “It’s important to me to be here … and help his family find him.”

Young, like Orbeso, hasn’t lost hope that they will find the younger Orbeso and Nguyen alive.

“We want to let Joseph and Rachel know that we love them and hopefully will find them soon,” Orbeso said.

While scaled back some, the search for the pair will continue, especially on weekends, said Dan Messaros, Joshua Tree operations supervisor and incident commander for the search effort.

The park spans nearly1,240 square miles of otherworldly terrain that can be confusing and the heat relentless.

While hikers – from novice to experienced – often get lost in Joshua Tree most are found within 24 hours, he said.

“They get turned around and when it gets dark will huddle down and when the sun comes up find their way out,” Messaros said.

The 4.8-mile Maze Loop is extremely rocky and hard to get out of and if you get off the trail, it’s like being stuck in a maze, Messaros said.

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There are deep holes one can fall into and not be able to climb out of, especially if the person is injured, he said.

Searchers are equally frustrated they have not been able to find the young couple – or even a clue as to what may have happened to them.

“We have used everything … including a drone from the Grand Canyon … but we just haven’t had any luck,” Messaros said.

It’s only about every other year that searchers have embarked on multi-day searches such as the one for Nguyen and Joseph Orbeso. Some have beaten the odds and survived several days in the desert.

When someone is believed lost in a National Park, “The search never ends,” park spokesman Land said.

On Saturday morning, a Joshua Tree National Park Search and Rescue training team also searched the area, going out at sunrise with canines.

At the end of the day, there was still no sign of the two friends from Westminster.

“We will continue searching until hopefully we can bring these young people home,” Land said. “Being a parent myself, it’s heartbreaking.”

With temperatures in the park running in the mid-90s to 100 degrees and high humidity, Land cautioned hikers to start early – around 5:30 a.m. – and be done by 10 a.m. and, most importantly, bring plenty of water.

Anyone who may have seen Joseph Orbeso and Nguyen or who may have any information about them is asked to call San Bernardino Dispatch at (909) 383-5652.