Officials have identified one of the three hikers found dead on Mt. Baldy this week as 19-year-old Marcus Muench Casanova of Seal Beach.
Casanova fell 500 feet on Monday while hiking Devil’s Backbone, a sharp ridge with steep drops on either side, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Two other hikers were then spotted on the mountainside by a helicopter sent to rescue Casanova, but crews were unable to conduct the operation due to high winds, officials said. An airship later lowered a medic, who found that all three men had died. A sheriff’s air rescue team recovered the bodies at about 2 p.m. the following afternoon…