Couple lost in California wilderness survived on rainwater and oranges

Elderly couple lost in California wilderness for two weeks

Dianna Bedwell found severely dehydrated, her husband, Cecil Knutson, was dead when rescuers found them

Authorities said Monday that an elderly California couple stranded for two weeks in a remote part of San Diego County ate oranges and a pie and drank rainwater to survive, though that wasn't enough to save the 79-year-old husband.

Off-roaders found Cecil Knutson's body with his wife, Dianna Bedwell, 68, Sunday afternoon near a Boy Scouts camp on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation about 65 miles northeast of San Diego, sheriff's Lt. Ken Nelson said. Bedwell wasn't able to tell authorities when her husband had died, but an autopsy to be conducted by Tuesday could help answer that question, he said.

Bedwell told authorities the couple was trying to take a shortcut and got lost in the rugged area, where their 2014 white Hyundai Sonata was obscured by trees and surrounded by brush, making it invisible to helicopters that were conducting aerial searches, Nelson said.

Knutson's body was near the car and Bedwell was inside the vehicle, he said.

"They were really off the beaten path. We were really surprised that the vehicle they were driving, a sedan, was even able to get out there," he said Monday. "It was so rural that it took two weeks for even off-roaders to find them."

The family asked for privacy in a statement posted on a Facebook page established to help with the search.

"Please continue to keep the family in your prayers," it read.

However, Robert Acosta, Bedwell's son, spoke briefly to local media.

"We loved [Knutson] so much and I can’t even begin to understand the grieving process," Acosta told KSWB. “There is no doubt in my mind that my dad kept my mom alive ... He was a marine and a hero.”

"I'm just so concerned with my mom right now," Acosta added in an interview with the Orange County Register. "To be in the middle of nowhere for two weeks is a lot given her age."

Bedwell remained hospitalized and hadn't spoken with authorities beyond an initial 10-minute interview.

The husband and wife, who were diabetic, were last seen on surveillance footage leaving the Valley View Casino in Valley Center, about 25 miles west of the wilderness camp, on May 10. Authorities said the two were planning on going to their son's home in the Palm Springs area for a Mother's Day dinner but they didn't show up there or return to their home in Fullerton.

Knutson and Bedwell were both retired school bus drivers and were married for more than 25 years, the Register reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.