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A 68-year-old woman from Fullerton who was stranded with her husband in a rural area of San Diego County for two weeks miraculously survived on fruit, pie and rainwater.
However, Dianna Bedwell's husband, 79-year-old Cecil “Paul” Knutson, didn't make it through the harrowing ordeal, the L.A. Times reports. His body was discovered near their 2014 white Hyundai Sonata on Sunday when authorities found the missing couple at the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation in Warner Springs. Bedwell, who was found in their car, was dehydrated and slipping in and out of consciousness, and was airlifted to a hospital in Escondido.
The couple disappeared after leaving a Valley Center Casino on Mother's Day and were heading to their son's home in La Quinta in Riverside County that afternoon. It appears that they tried to find a shortcut to avoid the traffic and got lost in the remote area. San Diego County Sheriff's Department Lt. Jim Bolwerk told the OC Register that the area they were found was "at a very high elevation, mountainous, and very thickly forested." Their car had gotten stuck on boulders in the rugged terrain, according to NBC Los Angeles.
"They were really off the beaten path," San Diego County Sheriff's Lt. Kenneth Nelson told the Associated Press. "We were really surprised that the vehicle they were driving, a sedan, was even able to get out there. It was so rural that it took two weeks for even off-roaders to find them."
Authorities had been searching for the couple ever since their son reported them missing, but crews had a hard time finding them with aerial searches because their car was shrouded by trees. A person who went off-roading spotted their car and reported it to authorities. Crews saw that there were cups surrounding the couple's car, so authorities believed the couple was collecting rainwater to survive.
"It was obvious that they were walking around," tribal police chief Dave Sossaman told NBC Los Angeles. "They tried to walk out two or three times but couldn't make it."
Bedwell and Knutson were both diabetic. They were retired school bus drivers who had been married for more than 25 years.
“That she survived is nothing short of a miracle,” Nelson told the Times. “Even for someone fit and in good health, surviving this long would be difficult. She is elderly and with health problems and yet she made it.”
