Missing couple lived off rain

Warner Springs ( US), May 26: An elderly husband and wife stranded for two weeks in Southern California’s high desert ate oranges and a pie and drank rain water that they collected in cups, but the 79- yearold husband died at some point before the couple’s rescue, authorities said today.

Off- roaders found Cecil Knutson and his wife, Dianna Bedwell, 68, Sunday afternoon near a Boy Scouts camp on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation about 105 kilometres northeast of San Diego, sheriff ’ s Lt Ken Nelson said.

Ms Bedwell wasn’t able to tell authorities when her husband had died, but an autopsy to be conducted by Tuesday could help answer.