Big Sur hiker died from alcohol withdrawal seizures, California officials confirm

In the remote wilderness of California's Big Sur, a 37-year-old woman named Joanna Ruth Shields died alone in April, her passing initially shadowed by the appearance of violence. Months of careful forensic work have now returned a quieter, more sorrowful verdict: her body, long burdened by alcohol use disorder and untreated bipolar illness, succumbed to the medical emergency of alcohol withdrawal seizures — far from any help that might have saved her. Her story is one that many families know in silence, where addiction and mental illness converge in places no investigation can fully illuminate