Missing Silver Lake Couple Wandered Mexico Desert Without Food and Water

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Police Friday said a missing Silver Lake couple have been located in Mexico in good health and will be reunited with their family.

Aaron Morganstein, 33, and Mariya Mitkova, 27, last had been heard from when they left their home in the 2200 block of Shoredale Avenue about 3 p.m. Saturday.

Authorities had thought the couple were headed to Joshua Tree National Park or the Imperial Sand Dunes, and sought public help when they couldn't be reached.

The pair wandered the desert without food or water for five days before they found maintenance workers at a remote cell tower in Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A friend of the couple told the newspaper in an email, “In order [to] conserve their water they also drank their own urine. They saw helicopters flying, and actually were able to light a fire to get attention but no one was able to see them.”

According to the Times, Mitkova told relatives “that they were nearly dead, exhausted, dehydrated and thought that they were gonna die and then they ran into someone.”

City News Service; Photo courtesy of the LAPD