Pleas for missing Lauren Cho to get Gabby Petito coverage after she vanishes in California desert

The family of missing Lauren Cho have pleaded for the same level of media coverage as Gabby Petito received after she vanished from California’s high desert.

Ms Cho, 30, was reported missing in late June after she disappeared in California’s Yucca Valley.

She was last seen at around 3pm on 28 June in the area near Hoopa Road and Ben Mar Trail between Morongo Valley and Yucca valley.

Authorities say that her friend, Cody Orell, called sheriffs at 5.13pm and told them that she had seemed upset and walked away on foot while he was inside his tour bus.

Ms Cho, who is also known as El, had met Mr Orell in New Jersey and the pair had travelled across the country together.

When she did not return from her walk, police say that Mr Orell raised the alarm and called her friends to help look for her.

They told law enforcement that she did not take her phone, or food and water with her when she left.

Earlier this week her friends and family wrote on Facebook that they understood the comparisons that were being made online to their daughter’s disappearance and the killing of Gabby Petito.

“We realise that on the surface, the public information for both cases share some similarities,” they wrote on Facebook page dedicated to find her.

“We understand the frustration many of you have expressed about how and why certain cases receive national coverage.

“Ultimately, these two cases are NOT the same and the differences run deeper than what meets the public eye. We are wholly appreciative of the love that continues to be shown to El.”

Ms Cho left the east coast after becoming dissatisfied with her music teaching job, and was renovating a school bus to use as a food truck when she vanished.

“On Sunday, she was going out to meet someone and wasn’t saying who. I didn’t pry into it then, but of course now I wish…,” Mr Orell, who used to date Ms Cho, told the High-Desert Star.

Earlier this week San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials announced that its Specialised Investigations Division would be assisting Morongo Basin Station deputies in the search for Ms Cho.

The search effort has previously included fixed-wing aircraft scouring nearby remote mountain terrain on 24 July, and seven canines searching the Benmar Trail home and its surrounding area on 31 July.

She is described as an Asian woman, 5ft 3in tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

Pictures released by sheriff’s officials show she has a tattoos on her left shoulder below her collarbone, and on her inner right arm. She was last seen wearing a yellow T-shirt and jean shorts.