Body in Canyon May Be Missing Woman, 26

The body of a woman--possibly a person reported missing from Anaheim since Oct. 13--was found early Tuesday at the bottom of a canyon beside Ortega Highway, the apparent victim of a traffic mishap.

A California Highway Patrol officer spotted a pickup truck registered to Linda Louise Diesman, 26, of Anaheim, and searchers later found a woman’s body nearby.

The truck, not easily seen from the road, was lying crushed and upside down about 300 feet below a steep slope 14 miles east of San Juan Capistrano, officers said. Searchers found the body of a woman about 150 feet uphill from the wreck, and officers said the body fit Diesman’s general description.

Judging from the condition of the body, officers said it appeared to have been exposed for at least two weeks.

Investigators said they could not be positive of the identification until Diesman’s dental records are compared to the body.

Diesman was reported missing by friends, who told the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department that they had last seen her in Lake Elsinore on Oct. 11. The most commonly used route to Orange County from Lake Elsinore is along two-lane Ortega Highway, also known as California 74.

Curve in Road

Diesman’s truck was found along a particularly rocky, mountainous section of the highway, where the road takes a wide curve. The remains of several vehicles lie below the curve in the same canyon.

Officer Peter Gustafson, who is assigned to the CHP’s San Juan Capistrano office, was sent to the Ortega Highway during the rainy, predawn hours Tuesday in search of a traffic accident reported in the area that morning.

Gustafson said he did not find an accident and turned back toward Capistrano when he reached the Riverside County line. Then he encountered a small landslide blocking one lane of the highway and pulled to the side of the road to report it. It was while waiting for a response that he sighted Diesman’s truck.

After spotting the truck, he noticed a roadside marker that had been bent over, apparently from the truck running off the road, he said.

Orange County firefighters hiked down the slope to inspect the wreckage and came upon the body, Gustafson said. They also found a small child’s clothing in the cab of the truck, causing concern that a child might also have been in the truck as it plunged over the side.

No other trace of a child was found at the scene, however, and Diesman’s 3-year-old daughter was found living with her godparents, a CHP spokesman said.

Although an autopsy was performed on the body Tuesday, the CHP spokesman said neither the cause of death nor a positive identification would be known until today.