Missing men found dead in desert
RANDSBURG, Calif. — Friends and family of 29 year-old Chris Rice and 27 year-old Daniel Carbonaro came to this area of the Mojave Desert in hope of finding the two friends who had been reported missing since Sunday. The pair however, were found dead Thursday shortly after noon, after apparently having been injured when their ATV went crashing down a steep ravine.
"This is not the outcome that everybody wanted," said Jonathan Katz-Moses, a friend of the two men.
Rice and Carbonaro had come from Santa Barbara and left their Randsburg motel at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday on an ATV. They never came back. Kern County Sheriff's Search and Rescue along with numerous other agencies from within and outside of Kern County joined in the search for the missing men. And so did family members.
"It was like looking for a needle within a haystack within a barn full of haystacks," said Robert Carbonaro, father of Daniel.
The area is vast rugged terrain filled with old mines and shafts making for treacherous conditions. Thursday afternoon a sheriff's ground search team located tire tracks in an area one and a half miles southwest of an area known as Government Peak. The search team followed the tracks which ultimately lead them to a crash site where a Polaris RZR off-road vehicle was located in a steep ravine. Team members also found the bodies of the two victims.
It has not yet been determined how long the bodies may have been at the location or how they died. An autopsy is pending.
Katz-Moses said he wanted to thank everyone involved in the effort in the search for the two friends.
