Paul Miller, 51, from Ontario Canada, went missing on July 13, 2018, after leaving his hotel to hike the 49 Palms Oasis Trail. He and his wife were on vacation celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary. The couple was checking out of the hotel that afternoon and his wife, Stephanie Miller, stayed behind to finish packing while Paul set out on his hike – this was when he was last seen.

When Paul failed to return later that afternoon, Stephanie reported his disappearance to the park rangers, and a search team immediately went into action. A continues search lasted till July 18, 2018 before search efforts phased into a limited-continuous mode. The Joshua Tree Search and Rescue team continued search efforts as resources permitted.

Paul Miller’s remains were initially spotted by a drone on August of 2019 in the 49 Palms Canyon area with the help of the Utah-based nonprofit organization, Western States Aerial Search. However, those images were not yet reviewed until December 19, 2019 when the remains were spotted in one of the images by officials.

On December 20, 2019 the remains were retrieved, and on January 14, 2020 the remains were identified as Paul Miller.

Due to the remains being found in the skeletonization phase, cause of death has not been determined. His wife mentioned that at the beginning of the search, search parties would have been close enough to where Miller’s remains were found that he would have heard the search teams calling out for him. This could mean he suffered a quick death; the thought that Miller might not had suffered long brought comfort to Stephanie.

Speculations as to what caused Paul Miller’s death are either a heart attack, or a heat stroke, since it seemed that Paul was hiking back in the wrong direction.