Car, Cell Phones Found in Los Osos Woman’s Mysterious Death

“The vehicle revealed a lot of information for us”, says Nye County, Nevada Sheriff Tony De Meo, “the vehicle holds a lot of answers that we believe will give us some indication as to what happened to Margay.”

De Meo was responding to questions from Central Coast news in a phone interview Monday afternoon, more than 10 days after the decomposing body of 27 year old Margay Edwards was found by ATV riders in the open desert near Pahrump, Nevada.

“Its going to give us a lot of answers so we can keep the family informed”, De Meo says after a helicopter search on Saturday found the rental car Edwards was driving in the days before her death, “after all we owe the family the answers that they are looking for.”

A cause of death has not yet been revealed in what is expected to be a lengthy autopsy by forensic pathologists.

Sheriff De Meo says the blue Hyundai rental car was found in a desert ravine in the Pahrump Valley, not far from where Edwards’ body was found.

“We would have found the vehicle eventually, even though it was three miles from where Margay was discovered, the terrain in the desert is very rough and has a lot of ravines in it and it has a lot of washes in it and is very difficult for any vehicle especially a quad or ATV to get through”, De Meo says, “we were able to see the back track and able to realize how the vehicle traveled to that location, where the vehicle was discovered there was no other vehicle traffic ever at that location for quite a few years.”

De Meo says two cell phones were found in the rental car which are being examined by investigators but he would not say if either phone belonged to Margay Edwards.

De Meo says Margay Edwards was interviewed by one of his deputies after she was found sitting in the car on the side of the road near Pahrump on Saturday, September 13.

“A concerned citizen contacted the Nye County Sheriff’s Office and that was September 13th”, De Meo says, “we sent a deputy to the location, to determine what had happened and it was Ms. Edwards in the car.”

De Meo would not reveal if Margay was sleeping in the car.

“We went and did a status check and the deputy was in contact with her, she was lucid, she was okay, she explained why she was there, and there was no further reason for us to have any further contact”, De Meo adds, “she was fine, the deputy stated she was fine and there was no reason for us to get further involved, she gave the reason why she was there and everything checked out.”

De Meo says other people reported seeing Margay in her car in the area on Sunday, September 14, “so we know that on the 14th she was fine as well, people saw her, she was fine, there was no reason for anybody to contact the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.”

Her family says Margay Edwards visited them in Los Osos, where she grew up, before she drove off to Nevada on the weekend of September 13.

Her father Jeff Edwards has told Central Coast News Margay had stayed before at the home of a couple she knew who lived in Pahrump.

The Nye County Sheriff’s Department says the unidentified man and woman have been cooperating with the investigation in Margay’s death.

De Meo says he expects the items and other evidence found in the rental car to help investigators piece together what happened to Margay Edwards.

“We did talk to the friends of hers in the Pahrump Valley”, De Meo says, “they were very cooperative, and like I said, we are leaving the investigation open.”