Missing Person Tenaja
February 20, 2025
Tenaja Wilderness
2025-006
Written by: Eric Holden
February 20th – The team was activated to help the Murrieta Police Department search for Hiren Baltazar who had gone missing on February 10th. There were approximately 15 searchers from both RMRU and Riverside County Search dogs. Additional support from both SERT, RSO Aviation and Drone teams. The team searched throughout the day without sign of our missing person.
February 21st – The search continued with additional assets coming in from out of county. ~25 searchers from both Riverside County and San Diego County. CALOES assisted with their Falcon Group and had multiple air assets come out. The search expanded and continued throughout the day without sign of Hiren.
February 25th – The search area was expanded with additional resources coming in again. ~26 searchers from both Riverside and San Diego County. No sign of Hiren was found. Due to a strain on resources the search was temporarily suspended for a few days.
March 1st – One last search day concentrating on hard-to-reach areas but unfortunately no sign of our subject was found. ~20 searchers from RMRU, DSSAR, and RCSD
In total SAR members searched about 687miles of trails, roads, and rugged off trail terrain without sign of our missing person.
A few weeks later Hiren was located deceased, by members of the public, in a very rugged location about 0.25 miles out of our search area.
Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.
RMRU Members Involved: (David Altenburg, David Bever, Alex Cochran, Michael George, Kyleen Gonzalez, Andy Hayt, Eric Holden, Jeffery Leisner, Shani McCullough, Vinay Rao, Stephanie Robertson, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: (Riverside County Search Dogs, Desert Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, RSO Aviation, RSO Drones, RSO Mounted Enforcement Division, SERT, San Diego County Search and Rescue, San Diego County Mountain Rescue Team, Los Angeles County Air Rescue 5, and Cal OES Falcon Group)