Wife stranded in desert forgave husband for taking wrong turn

A woman stranded in her car for two weeks in the southern California desert, in May, said she forgave her husband for making a wrong turn and was prepared to die with him. 

“I told him, ‘Honey, we all make mistakes. We all make wrong choices.’ That’s all that was,” Dianna Bedwell said after the memorial service for Cecil ‘Paul’ Knutson, who died a week into the ordeal.

“We had 29 wonderful years together. If we make it out, fine. If we don’t make it out, fine.”

After Knutson, 79, died peacefully, he sent angels to rescue her, Bedwell, 68, said in her first public remarks about the tragedy.

Off-roaders found her severely dehydrated on May 24, on a dirt road near a Boy Scout camp 100km northeast of San Diego. She was airlifted to a hospital.

The Fullerton couple, both retired school-bus drivers, were heading from a casino to a son’s home near Palm Springs, California, for a Mother’s Day dinner, when Knutson took a wrong turn.

When he tried to turn around, the car got stuck on a rock. When the couple didn’t arrive, their son, Robert Acosta, called for help.

Searches on land and from the air failed to spot the white Hyundai Sonata, because it was under trees in a remote place.

The two, both diabetics, survived on rainwater, a butter-cream pie and eight pounds of oranges.