No Answers in Osos Woman’s Death

By Neil Farrell
Authorities in Nevada have few answers on the fate of a Los Osos woman whose body was found in the desert, however, they are sure she was not the victim of foul play.
The case began last Sept. 25, when two men riding ATVs found human remains while riding out in the desert near Parumph, Nev. The body was badly decomposed but the Nye County Nevada Sheriff’s Office was able to identify the person as Margay Edwards, 27, a Los Osos native daughter. Initially, Sheriff Tony De Meo declared the case a “homicide” pending an official cause of death from autopsy. That was later changed to “suspicious” as they had found no evidence of foul play.
Margay is the daughter of Los Osos residents, Insong and Jeff Edwards. She grew up in Los Osos and graduated from Morro Bay High in 2005.
An initial air search didn’t find Margay’s vehicle but Sheriff’s investigators returned to the scene a few days later and ordered a more extensive air search of the surrounding Parumph Valley.
On Oct. 4, Margay’s car, a Hyundai Accent, was discovered in a ravine, several miles from where her body was found. The Sheriff himself and two detectives rode ATVs through rugged country to get to the car.
“Upon arriving on scene,” the NCSO office said in a news release, “it was apparent that the vehicle became disabled because the driver went off of passable desert ground into a ravine and collided with rocks and the ravine wall, which disabled the vehicle.
“The vehicle was locked with Margay Edwards’ property inside, including clothing, purse which contained two cellular phones and a MacBook Pro laptop computer. No signs of foul play were discovered at that time and the only set of footprints in the area were discovered in searching the area around the vehicle and desert.”
That discovery led to even more questions about what Margay’s fate might have been. But the body would not reveal any further insights into why she collapsed in the dessert and died.
The Clark County Nevada Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy, as did the University of North Texas, which consults in forensic anthropology for Clark County.
“Both autopsies from the Clark County Coroner’s Office and UNT proved no signs of any criminality were present,” reads the release. “Whatever caused Margay Edwards to collapse and die where she was found could not be positively determined. Both CCCO and UNT, classified the death as ‘Undetermined, No Criminal Involvement.’”
So with no final answers from the authorities, that leaves Margay’s family to deal with the grief of losing her.
“We are not surprised by the press release and are at peace with there being no one directly involved in Margay’s death,” Jeff Edwards told The Bay News. “To mount anger and a pursuit for justice would take away from the mourning and healing that we seek at this time.”
The authorities were able to piece together a timeline of Margay’s activities before she died alone in the desert.
“Margay met a couple from Pahrump while in San Diego,” Jeff said, “she was adventurous and would often drop everything to try something new. She never hesitated when the opportunity to travel was included in an adventure.”
Sheriff De Meo said Margay was known to frequent the area around Parumph “and was the subject of a call for service about 1-1/2 miles from where her body was discovered. Ms. Edwards was last seen near the dry lakebed on Sept. 14 by two citizens from information that has come to our attention during an interview. Margay Edwards was fine, not in any distress in the rental vehicle she was driving, that is the last contact that can be reported.”
Jeff Edwards said, “She went to Pahrump to visit her new friends and the visit ended up being several months. She was here [Los Osos] as recently as Sept. 12. Yet she was last seen by the Pahrump husband on the evening of Sept. 14.”
The unusual location of where her rental car was found is another puzzle that likely will never be solved. “We will never know how she ended up off road with the rental car and then lost in the desert,” said Jeff. “The Nye County Sheriff believes it was nighttime when she wrecked and she tried to walk back to town in the deceiving desert — what appears to be flat terrain is actually very hilly and things that appear close can be very far away.”
Margay attended Baywood School from kindergarten to third grade, when she transferred to TEACH in SLO. “She was wicked smart,” said Jeff. She came back to the South Bay to attend Los Osos Middle School and then MBHS.
“She played basketball and was an all-around athlete,” Jeff recalled. “Later in life she loved to hike, run, bike and swim. Again, never turning down an opportunity, she would go camping, snorkeling, fishing, and as recently as [last] August she went abalone diving in Fort Bragg with an old friend.”
She was on-and-off of school after high school, he said. She was accepted at Cal Poly but chose not to go. Later she went to and completed Cuesta in 2012.
She was pursuing a business degree with an emphasis in real estate, as she had worked with her dad on many occasions. But she had spent much of her work experience in the hospitality industry, working at the Flying Dutchman as a hostess after high school and then a waitress/bartender at Firestone Grill in SLO before moving to San Diego, where she worked at a La Jolla golf resort as a bartender, he said.
Margay Edwards was outgoing, energetic and charismatic, her dad said. “She was also a talented artist. She loved to paint and recently took up sewing her own clothes, rehabbing things that she would find in thrift stores [another passion of hers was finding thrift store treasures to use in interior decorating]. She loved her little brother, Jack [age 7], and was extremely close to her mother Insong.”
She had a soft spot in her heart for animals and would often go to animal shelters to walk the dogs. She found “Lexus” an assistance dog for her dad at a shelter.
The family has asked that anyone wishing to honor Margay Edwards make a donation to Woods Humane Society or the County Animal Shelter in her name.