[Update] Missing Woman Found Dead in Car Crash
First Responders Found Vehicle 400 Feet Down Cliff Near Stagecoach Road.
The body of a missing woman was found near her vehicle, approximately 400 feet down a cliff, on Thursday near Stagecoach Road, half a mile east of Highway 154. After the Santa Barbara County Air Support Unit located the woman’s vehicle, emergency personnel from the Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department, California Highway Patrol, and U.S. Forest Service responded to the scene.
Search and Rescue personnel and county firefighters repelled down the cliff and discovered the victim’s body several hundred feet from her vehicle. According to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office, it appeared she had been ejected during the crash.
The CHP and the Corner’s Unit are conducting investigations into the cause of the crash. Pending next of kin notifications, the victim’s name has not yet been released.
[Update, 12:13 p.m.]:
The victim had been identified as Georgette Gonzales, 59, of Grover Beach. She was reported missing by her family to the Grover Beach Police Department on Wednesday. Believing Gonzales might have been at Lake Cachuma, Santa Barbara County Sheriffs and Park Rangers led an unsuccessful search of the area. A Sheriff’s deputy traced Gonzales’s cell phone to the Stagecoach Road and Cold Springs Bridge area, where she was eventually found.
