In search for couple, two bodies pulled from Kings River

Two bodies were pulled from a wrecked car in the Kings River on Thursday during the search for a San Diego couple believed to have died in August when their car plunged down a steep canyon into the river.

The Fresno County sheriff ’s search and rescue team extracted a car submerged in the Horseshoe Bend area of the river about 50 miles east of Fresno and found two bodies — presumably those of Yinan Wang, 31, and his wife, Jie Song, 30 — inside, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Tony Botti.

Coroner’s officials will conduct autopsies to identify the bodies and cause of death. Authorities plan to retrieve the car as part of the investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

Family members reported the couple missing Aug. 11 when they did not return from a trip to Yosemite and Sequoia national parks.

At the time, deputies were already searching for the couple’s car after finding its license plate during the recovery operation for another vehicle that drove off the same bend of Highway 180 in July.

The day after the missing persons report was filed, the Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol flew helicopters over the canyon and saw what appeared to be the wreckage of a submerged white car.

During Thursday’s recovery, the water was nearly 10 times lower than in early August, which authorities said created “safer conditions” for success.

The San Diego UnionTribune reported that Wang, a Chinese national, has lived in San Diego for about a year. Song lived in China and visited her husband several times a year.