Lost Motorcyclist
November 10, 2025
Palms to Pines Highway
2025-037
Written by: Alex Cochran
A crashed motorcycle was discovered along State Route 74 at the top of a small drop off by the California Highway Patrol. They contacted the Riverside Sheriff’s Office who attempted to locate the owner of the motorcycle but were unable to due to several recent sales of it. At approximately 1520, RMRU received the call to assist.
The area immediately surrounding the motorcycle had been trampled on by a number of deputies and officers over the previous day of investigations, so we were unable to determine which tracks belonged to the subject.
Incident command drew several area assignments on the map for the teams to search on the North and South sides of the road in both directions. There were many different sets of recent tracks in our area. We followed a number of them but could not find signs of the motorcyclist or a way to know which tracks were relevant.
We began by completing a detailed search of the brush within just a few meters of the motorcycle where Eric was quickly able to find the missing front wheel. We found no other sign. We looked in the treetops and completed a grid search of the remainder of our area, as did the other teams.
Approximately 175 meters away from the motorcycle, Eric, Vinay, and I all smelled decomposition. We spread out and followed the smell to the edge of the highway at the bottom of a small cliff. There we discovered dozens of black garbage bags containing animal remains. The remains were in various stages of decomp and consisted of multiple species but were all easily identifiable as non-human.
After covering the remainder of area, we reported the animal remains to deputies on scene and concluded the search.
RMRU Members Involved: (Dave Bever, Alex Cochran, Shana Gutovich, Andy Hayt, Glenn Henderson, Eric Holden, Dave Kosmal, Guillaume Plateau, and Vinay Rao)
Other Agencies Involved: (Riverside County Sheriff’s bloodhound and California Highway Patrol)