Police say alcohol withdrawal caused woman’s death in California backcountry

A death that fueled months of speculation about a violent attack has a different explanation, according to The Guardian. The Monterey County Sheriff's Office said on Thursday that Joanna Ruth Shields, whose body was found in California's Big Sur backcountry, died of alcohol withdrawal. The thirty-seven-year-old was discovered in April by hikers, naked in a pool of water in the Sykes hot springs area of the Ventana wilderness, with marks on her neck and a cut across her forehead. Those suspicious marks had driven widespread suspicion that she had been the victim of an attack, before the sheriff's finding pointed elsewhere.

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