LOS ANGELES -- The body of a dead motorist discovered recently when a second driver plunged over the same roadside cliff but survived, may be that of an 88-year-old former liquor store owner and West Los Angeles resident.
Officials have not formally identified the deceased motorist, whose decaying remains were discovered behind the wheel of a battered Toyota Camry in a deep ravine in the Angeles National Forest. However, the daughter of Melvin Gelfand, who has been missing for two weeks, said Saturday that she is certain the unknown motorist is her father.
Joan Matlack said the description of the dead motorist's vehicle -- and its license plates -- match her father's car. Matlack also said that a Los Angeles police investigators told her Gelfand's identification and car registration were in the vehicle.
According to a Los Angeles Police Department missing persons bulletin, Gelfand was last seen at his home on Sept. 14. On Saturday, Matlack said she believed her father was headed to a San Diego casino the day he disappeared. How he and his car ended up almost 10 miles north of Santa Clarita, in the opposite direction, she does not know.
The missing motorist may never have been discovered if not for the misfortune of another driver, David La Vau, who also drove off twisting Lake Hughes Road. The retired 67-year-old cable company worker survived at the bottom of the ravine by drinking creek water and eating leaves and insects for six days. On Thursday, he was discovered by his children, who had set off in teams to search for their missing father along Lake Hughes, based on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reports pinpointing the last place he'd used his cellular phone.
La Vau said later that he'd lived next to the other car for the duration of his ordeal, scavenging what food and clothes he could from it.
"What a bizarre coincidence, that they landed almost touching each other," Matlack said. "We're grateful that this other family didn't give up. We would have no idea where he was had that not happened."
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