After more than four days of intensive searching, the body of missing hiker Tim Sgrignoli was found Thursday in the Gaviota area, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Searchers located Sgrignoli’s remains at about 9:20 a.m. in some heavy brush about 20 feet off of Highway 101, just north of the Gaviota Tunnel, sheriff’s Commander Erik Raney told Noozhawk.
A search team from San Mateo County participating in the operation through the mutual-aid system made the sad discovery.
“There was no obvious mechanism or cause of death,” Raney said, adding that the sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau picked up the remains and will conduct a full investigation.
Sgrignoli, 29, of Ventura went missing Sunday afternoon while hiking with his girlfriend on the Trespass Trail, a challenging 3-mile trek that leads up to Gaviota Peak.
Amid triple-digit temperatures, his girlfriend developed symptoms of heat illness on the trail, and he started hiking back to their vehicle to seek supplies and assistance.
He left the woman, whose name has not been released, with their only cell phone, and she called 9-1-1 at about 2 p.m. A county helicopter responded, and she was hoisted from the trail.
She was treated for minor heat exhaustion, but was not hospitalized, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
A subsequently wide-scale search for Sgrignoli — on the ground and from the air — didn’t turn up anything until Thursday.
Cause of death was pending an investigation by the Coroner’s Bureau.
“There are a lot of different working theories of why he ended up in that location,” Raney said, noting that Highway 101 is visible from portions of the trail, and Sgrignoli may have been taking a shortcut to get help.
The couple’s vehicle was still at the trailhead parking area on Sunday, so presumably he never made it there.
Search and rescue teams had been combing the rugged terrain around the trail, assisted by K-9 units, helicopters and drones, and expanded the search as time went by.
“We were directed to that area (where he was found) because of the different working theories that we had gathered,” Raney said. “As days go on, you need to start re-evaluating what might have happened.”
Members of Sgrignoli’s immediate family, as well as those of his girlfriend, had traveled to Gaviota to assist in the search and support the search teams, Raney said.
“They have been really active participants in our process,” he added.
“It’s definitely not the outcome we were looking for,” Raney said. “It’s a heavy heart to have that discovery today.”
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.