Hiker Murder-Suicide May Have Been Act of Sympathy

The uncle of a young woman killed in an apparent murder-suicide in Joshua Tree National Park says she may have been killed out of compassion. 

Investigators believe Joseph Orbeso, 21, shot 20-year-old Rachel Nguyen before turning the handgun on himself. The bodies were found in an "embrace" last week, more than three months after they disappeared while hiking.

Investigators explained "with the circumstances and positioning of the bodies, that they believe this was a sympathetic murder-suicide," Son Nguyen, Nguyen's uncle, tells the Desert Sun. He says it appears that Orbeso had been looking after Nguyen after she slid down a cliff and suffered a head injury.

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