Garden Grove : Search Will Continue for Missing Woman

Rescue teams suspended their search Sunday for a 58-year-old Garden Grove woman lost in a steep and rugged area of the Angeles National Forest, but plan to resume looking at daybreak today, authorities said.

About 27 members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s search-and rescue team--aided by a helicopter--scoured the mountainous area near Crystal Lake beginning at sunrise Sunday for Angelina Hoffman, Sheriff’s Sgt. John Andrews said.

Hoffman, described by family members as a novice hiker, had become separated from her husband, Harold Hoffman, during a day hike Saturday at the 6,650-foot-level near Islip Saddle off California Route 2 above Crystal Lake, the husband told authorities.

At that altitude, nighttime temperatures range in the 30s, and high winds of up to 50 miles per hour were reported Saturday night. Those winds were expected to diminish Sunday night, said Victor Hoffman, the missing woman’s son.

Despite those adverse conditions, family members remained optimistic, her son said in a telephone interview Sunday night. “We’re still hoping we’re going to find her alive,” he said.

Sheriff’s deputies said she was wearing pants, a lightweight jacket, and carried a day backpack.

During Sunday’s search, rescuers fanned out from that point and scoured the steep terrain until the search was suspended about 4 p.m., Sgt. Andrews said.