Lost Couple

It's hard to believe something so simple could result in death. Most of that area is lightly inhabited, but there are people in the vicinity - provided they had been alerted, or were themselves alert to odd goings-on. And it was all just for a little fun.

Presumably the elderly couple were ill-prepared for the cold, and perhaps unreasonably frightened. It can happen when you are lost.

I wonder exactly where this occurred and whether one can chalk it up as another Highway 16 statistic?:

Authorities say a 78-year-old woman died of hypothermia after she and her husband took a wrong turn in Northern California and got stranded.

Police say Harold and Raquel Labbe of Hayward set out for Cache Creek Casino on Jan. 27. They took a wrong turn onto a dirt road running through an orchard and got their car stuck in mud.

Police believe the couple ran the engine to stay warm, then sought help on foot after running out of gas.

The couple's son reported them missing Jan. 29, saying concern was high because his mother had Alzheimer's disease.

A farmworker found 76-year-old Harold Labbe unconscious Monday, about 50 feet from the car. Authorities found Raquel Labbe's body several hundred yards away.

Harold Labbe is recovering from hypothermia at a hospital.