A routine hike in California's Angeles National Forest for one man turned grisly Sunday when he came across the remains, ID and car of Megan Sue Dipiazza, a woman who mysteriously disappeared in 2012 and had been missing ever since.
The hiker discovered her car but failed to realize its significance until he looked up the name on the ID card he found online. Upon discovering her identity, he contacted authorities, who arrived Sunday evening but came back the following morning since it was too dark to conduct a proper search, according The Los Angeles Times.
Detectives managed to find a family photo as well as credit cards through their search. Keys were found still in the ignition, but the seat belt was unfastened. Investigators also found various human bones, which remain unidentified pending the results of a DNA test.
Dipiazza, 33, was going through a bitter divorce with her husband at the time of her disappearance, reported ABC 7. A mother of one, she left a "goodbye" note in a trashcan at her Los Angeles foothills home, but investigators have declined to elaborate on the contents of the note.
Authorities and her family have been searching for her body ever since she went missing on the evening of Nov. 11, 2012. There have been various leads in the case, with the most recent one being in September, when human remains were found in a Santa Clarita ravine, but this is the first one that has been definitively linked to Dipiazza.
The case has been classified as a voluntary missing person case, reported the New York Daily News. However, many have suspicions considering what was going on in Dipiazza's life prior to her disappearance.
This stage of the investigation is being handled by Glendale police and and Los Angeles County coroner's officials.
