TC including David O’Sullivan in weekly missing report

David O’Sullivan, of Ireland, was last seen at the Idyllwild Inn April 7, 2017. He was 25 years old when he went missing.

The Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation (FOF) website writes of him, “David [O’Sullivan] was thru-hiking NOBO on the Pacific Crest Trail [PCT] from Mexico to Canada. On April 6, 2017 he sent an email to his family from an Idyllwild library. O’Sullivan, who is from Ireland, intended to hike north into the San Jacinto Mountains the next day. He has not been seen since. There are several trails he could have taken to access the PCT from Idyllwild. We do not know which trail David took.”

More about O’Sullivan can be read on the FOF website at https://www.fofound.org/cases/davidosullivan.

Cathy Tarr, founder of FOF wrote, “Andrea Lankford, admin of the ‘Missing from the Pacific Crest Trail’ Facebook page, warned hikers of [James William] Parrillo. The post went viral with over 800,000 views, https://www.facebook.com/pctmissing.org/posts/802717017119071.”

Backpacker.com published a story by Bill Donahue titled “Kidnapped on the Pacific Crest Trail” Dec. 17, 2019.

The introduction reads: “This is the story of an alleged kidnapping and rape on the Pacific Crest Trail. No charges have been filed against the alleged perpetrator [James William Parrillo]. The accuser [Kira Moon] died on February 7, 2019. Prior to the alleged crimes, the alleged perpetrator was accused of mistreating a number of other women, but was never criminally charged or convicted for such behavior. This story is based on statements the accuser made prior to her death, interviews with more than 20 witnesses, and a review of public records. The alleged perpetrator has not responded to requests for comments.” Donahue reports “Moon died when an electrical failure caused the trailer to catch fire.”

According to the story, Idyllwild is one of the towns Parrillo and Moon would hitchhike between. Read the entire story at https://www.backpacker.com/stories/thru-hikes/trail-stories/kidnapped-on-the-pacific-crest-trail/?fbclid=IwAR10pzWQRIvbMGwic2LfszMHn-nK4vAFXFZOZ_cz7Gj07coADcbo4r94uSo.

An excerpt from Lankford’s unpublished book was given to the newspaper by Tarr. Note: Parrillo is spelled differently from the above story.

“In Warner Springs, Medic [Parillo’s trail name] lectured other hikers about the David O’Sullivan case as if he knew a lot about it. Search dogs had caught David’s scent on Fuller Ridge, he told these hikers, but authorities failed to locate the body. (Later, in private, Medic told Steel a different story about what happened to O’Sullivan).

“The day Parillo was released from his misdemeanor warrant, Sally Fowler and Andrea Lankford of the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation posted warnings on Facebook exposing his long history of violence and deception to the PCT hiking community. Brandi Valenza had complied [sic] an excellent timeline linking Parillo to other (((APPEND)))crimes, but a few contrarians criticized us for tarnishing an innocent man’s reputation. Others expressed doubts the hiker they knew as Medic was capable of such behavior. ‘He never seem[sic] the typed,’ one man wrote on Facebook, ‘not even close.’

“Among of Medic’s many lies was the one he told hikers about David O’Sullivan. Via a text exchange through Brandi Valenza, Andrea asked Kira/Steel about it. ‘Did you remember his talking about the missing Irish hiker David O’Sullivan?’

“‘Yes, many times,’ Kira wrote.

“‘What was he saying about him?’

“‘That he was at the bottom of a gorge at Walker Pass,’ and the authorities ‘didn’t want to risk harm to agents [by] fishing him out.’

“At the end of this short exchange, Kira added, ‘he threatened to throw me off a cliff.’

“There was no truth to Parillo’s stories about David. The account about a dog catching David’s scent on Fuller Ridge is false. Walker Pass (Mile 650) is too far north of Idyllwild for David to have hiked that far without being seen. I’m not sure why Parillo would tell one group of hikers that O’Sullivan’s body was on Fuller Ridge and then tell Steel, in private, that David fell off Walker Pass. Parillo stories about David are unsettling. He may have been using them to intimidate Kira Moon. Or he may have been conflating other missing hikers cases into one, because, coincidentally, there is a missing hiker case associated with Walker Pass.”

The newspaper has been covering missing persons in and around the area for over a year. Rosario Garcia’s remains were located, giving her family closure. Her remains were located by two nonprofits (one was FOF), not the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD).

Four people remain missing

Four (Roy Prifogle, Melissa Lane, Lydia “Dia” Abrams and Diana Perez Gonzalez) of eight people to go missing in and around the Idyllwild area remain missing.

Another search of the area where Prifogle went missing was conducted Sunday, April 18. “A search was completed on Sunday in the area where it was believed Roy [Prifogle] was last near,” the RCSD media information bureau wrote in an email response. “No evidence and or items were located during the search.” Prior to April 18, multiple searches had been conducted.

Prifogle was reported missing after going on a hike in the Pine Cove area Wednesday, March 4, 2020. He left home at about 1 p.m. and was last seen at the Pine Cove Market at 6:30 p.m. the same day. He was last seen wearing a red backpack and jeans.

Lane was last seen June 15, 2020. “I love my daughter so much and I’ve been praying for the other three families,” Lane’s mother Kathy Lamont said. “My heart tells me there is foul play somewhere.”

Local and Lane’s cousin Todd Gilliland was the last person to see her before she went missing. “I miss her a lot,” Gilliland said. “I wish we would get some kind of word about her. It’s nerve-racking. They [RCSD] have interviewed me once when she was reported missing and haven’t talked to me since. I was the last one to see her. You would think they’d want to go over it with me again.”

According to Lamont in December, the RCSD last searched in early September with cadaver dogs on Black Mountain Trail, north of Pine Cove, where Lane was last seen. The search came back with nothing.

Abrams was 65 years old at the time she went missing. She is 5’ 5” tall, 130 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and turquoise jacket, yellow shirt and blue jeans.

On June 6, 2020, Abrams was last seen by her self-proclaimed live-in boyfriend/fiancé Keith Harper at her ranch in Apple Canyon (between Mountain Center and Garner Valley). Since the initial search efforts more than 11 months ago, the RCSD has not provided new information or updates regarding her disappearance.

David Gotfredson, of News 8, previously reported that the San Juan County Sheriff in New Mexico obtained a search warrant and deputies impounded the RV Harper drove to New Mexico taking evidence from inside. However, the RCSD has not provided any persons of interest or suspects regarding Abrams or any of the other missing people.

Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit conducted searches on Abrams’ property before assigning the case to detectives.

The most recent woman to go missing from the Hemet/San Jacinto area is Diana Perez Gonzalez who was reported missing Dec. 11 and 27 years old at the time she went missing. According to family, Gonzalez visited the Idyllwild area regularly. She was last seen by her boyfriend.

Christy Rojas, Gonzalez’s sister, and her family are struggling with her sister missing.

Rojas said, “We’ve been terribly sad. We think about her every day and have dreams of her, waiting for any sign or a miracle because we miss her and love her a lot. But the most important, her baby needs her. We can see the sadness in her eyes. Although she can’t speak, we know she misses her mom.” Gonzalez was also pregnant when she went missing.