Crime & Safety
Search Continues for North Hollywood Couple Who Disappeared on Big Sur Road Trip
A young couple never returned from a road trip up the coast, and authorities are now investigating a crash site off PCH for traces of them.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- A vehicle was found over the side of Pacific Coast Highway in San Luis Obispo County Tuesday and authorities were investigating if it is the Honda Civic a missing North Hollywood couple took when they left for a pre-Christmas road trip to Big Sur.
Firefighters were called about 3:35 p.m. to the crash scene south of Ragged Point in the San Simeon area, according to the San Luis Obispo-based newspaper, The Tribune.
The body of one person was found along with a dead dog about 15 feet from the vehicle, which was about 325 feet over the side of PCH, California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Seebart told The Tribune. It was unclear if a second body was located.
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Olivia Hannah Gonzalez, 20, and Brian Fernandez, 21, left Dec. 23 on what was to be a weekend trip, and they were expected to return Christmas Day, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Family members confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the couple was traveling with two dogs.
An aerial search in Monterey County on Saturday for the tan 2002 Honda Civic four-door sedan Fernandez was driving turned up nothing.
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The last word from the pair was about 11:40 a.m. Dec. 23, when Gonzalez texted her brother-in-law to say they were about two hours away from Big Sur and a woman reported seeing them that day near where the vehicle was found.
An LAPD detective told Gonzalez's sister Vanessa Guzman that Fernandez was videotaped using a credit card at a liquor store in the Central Coast town of Cambria, south of Big Sur, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
Family members and friends have described Gonzalez and Fernandez as an on-again, off-again couple.
Gonzalez and Fernandez are both Hispanic. She is 5 feet 6, 120 pounds and has blonde hair and brown eyes. Fernandez is 5 feet 8, 160 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
The Honda Civic Fernandez was driving has the California license plate number 5VUD295.
Anyone with information regarding the couple's whereabouts was asked to call the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800 and ask for Detective Palmer. After-hours or weekend calls should be directed to (877) LAPD-24-7.
City News Service