Had No Food, Water During Ordeal : Woman Rescued After 3 Days on Cliff

A North Hollywood woman who survived a fall down a steep cliff in the Angeles National Forest and was trapped for nearly three days without food or water was rescued early today, sheriff’s deputies said.

Linda Gillum, 38, was able to shout for help to two deputies who had pulled off a mountain road to check her car, which had been parked in a turnout for several days. The officers summoned a rescue team to pull her out, Sgt. Robert Shearer said.

“She’s been there since Monday,” Shearer said, adding that the woman seemed weak and was dehydrated but otherwise in good condition.

“She was lying close to a ledge and couldn’t move when we got to her,” Deputy Mark Suhr, one of the deputies who found her, said. “She said she was cold so I gave her my shirt.”

Gillum told deputies she had been hiking down the hillside Monday afternoon and lost her footing and fell. She said she had tried to climb out but became too exhausted to reach the road.

Shearer said the woman’s Pontiac, parked in a turnout north of Hanson Canyon, was unlocked and its windows were down, and that deputies most likely had checked the car several times since Monday.

“If it was checked during the daytime, she would never have known because there are so many cars passing on the road,” he said. “Apparently she heard the patrol car this time and probably saw the lights.”

Suhr said he and his partner, Deputy Steve Crider, shined their flashlights down the cliff when they heard what sounded like moans.

“She was pretty far down, about 100 to 150 feet, and actually she was screaming, not moaning,” Suhr said.

Gillum, who apparently did not break any bones in the fall, was taken to Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale. A hospital spokeswoman said she appeared to be in good condition.