Body of Mission Viejo Hiker, 46, Found in Park : Search: Victim had gone to Joshua Tree National Monument after attending seminar in Indian Wells.

The body of a hiker from Mission Viejo, whose wife reported him missing over the weekend, has been found in Joshua Tree National Monument.

Michael John O’Connor, 46, had been attending a Chrysler Corp. seminar in Indian Wells on Friday and had bought a ticket to hike to the monument afterward, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

When he did not come home Saturday, his wife, Dorothy, reported him missing to Riverside County officials.

Search teams of rangers, rescue dogs, a California Highway Patrol helicopter and the Riverside County Mountain Rescue Unit began combing the park at 10 p.m. Saturday and worked through the night, Sheriff’s Sgt. Marco Diaz said.

Early Sunday, they found O’Connor’s car at the Cotton Wood Springs area of the monument. Then, about 5:30 p.m., his body was found a mile and a half from the ranger station at Cotton Wood Springs. He had sustained head injuries, Diaz said.

Investigators speculate that O’Connor might have fallen from a trail, Diaz said. Officials will not know when O’Connor died until an autopsy has been completed on Wednesday.

“It is easy to get lost in there, but we don’t usually have people get hurt” or seriously lost, Diaz said. “People usually stick to the trails and guidelines that rangers set up.”

A family friend said O’Connor was a novice at hiking.

“They’re usually not campers,” Florence Kiang, a former neighbor, said of the O’Connor family. “They would go to San Diego or San Francisco on vacations.

“This is terrible. He was a very good neighbor and would help me out if I needed help. He used to take walks around here. He had a sense of humor and would say things to make people laugh.”

O’Connor and his wife have two teen-age daughters, she said.