Wife stranded in desert was prepared to die next to husband

Funeral services will be held tomorrow for an Orange County man who disappeared for weeks along with his wife on a drive to the Coachella Valley. Cecil “Paul” Knutson, 79, and Bedwell went missing on Mother’s Day after spending time at a San Diego area casino.

Bedwell was rescued May 24 when off-roaders discovered their vehicle near a Boy Scout camp, but Knutson had died May 17, a week after a wrong turn May 10 had jeopardized their lives. “That’s all that was, ‘ Dianna Bedwell said Friday after the memorial service for Cecil ‘Paul” Knutson, who died a week into the ordeal.

Bedwell says her husband of 29 years was sweet and kind in his last days and died in his sleep.

The couple survived for on rainwater, an eight-pound bag of oranges and a banana creme pie, officials said. Knutson was dead when first responders arrived, and Bedwell was severely dehydrated but conscious.

The coroner’s report said that the sheriff’s investigators attempted to locate the couple by “pinging” their cell phones but the phones were turned off.

The autopsy listed his cause of death as heart attack and categorized it as accidental adding that no signs of foul play or trauma were seen on the body.

Knutson died and Bedwell spent weeks in the hospital and a rehabilition center. “I thank God for that”. He thought the road they took went through to Palm Springs.

A surveillance camera caught the couple as they left the Valley View Casino around 2 p.m. on May 10. Acosta didn’t believe that his stepfather was trying to take a shortcut.

Knutson appeared to have driven their passenger vehicle Highway 79 and exited at Camino San Ignacio. Where they were found, the Schoepe Scout Reservation in the Los Coyotes Reservation, is 17 miles from Camino San Ignacio. It was on a clipboard inside the auto that had come to rest three-quarters of a mile down a steep and rugged dirt road.

Dianna Bedwell is comforted by Gloria Allred outside a Fontana funeral home after a service for her husband on July 10, 2015. “This was my chance to pay you back for everything that you have given to me, but I just couldn’t find you”, his son Robert Acosta said.

Knutson used a cane and walker to get around outside the vehicle, but eventually neither of them could walk.

Bedwell Knutson was initially admitted to an intensive care unit at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido.

“I prayed for safety for my husband and myself”, Bedwell said.