Bodies found in Angeles National Forest identified as missing couple

The bodies of two people found inside a vehicle earlier this month at the bottom of an Angeles National Forest mountainside have been identified as a young couple reported missing about a week earlier, the coroner confirmed.

The dead were identified as Ethan Manzano and Sophia Edwards, both 19.

The vehicle was located at 5:12 p.m. July 6, hundreds of feet down a steep mountainside off the Angeles Crest (2) Highway near Mile Post Marker 71.5, according to California Highway Patrol Officer M. Rogers.

The preliminary investigation revealed the vehicle was eastbound at an unknown speed when the driver “either caused or allowed (the vehicle) to veer to the left, where it impacted a dirt berm, causing it to subsequently overturn multiple times down a steep mountainside,” Rogers said.

The pair were visiting friends in the Newcombs Ranch area but left around 1:30 a.m. July 1 to drive home to Apple Valley. They never arrived. The couple were planning to move to Colorado over the Fourth of July weekend.

While waiting positive identification, the couple’s friends and family feared the worst.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be burying my son. He was only 19,” Manzano’s father, Al, told reporters.

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