A relative of a couple missing since a trip to a San Diego County casino on Mother’s Day is desperate to find her loved ones safe and alive.
“I’m sure somebody will find them. I hope they’re alive,” said Marleen Johnson, holding back tears, as she spoke with WTHR in Indianapolis.
Johnson, who lives in Indiana, is the cousin of Dianna Bedwell, 67.
Bedwell and her husband, Cecil Knutson, 79, have been missing since Sunday. They were last seen leaving Valley View Casino in Valley Center around 2 p.m. and were expected at their son’s home at 4 p.m. that evening to celebrate Mother’s Day.
The couple never showed up.
From afar, Johnson said she and her siblings are awaiting any sort of updates on the search.
The family has experienced tragedy before. In 1965, Bedwell’s teenage sister, Sylvia, was tortured and murdered in Indianapolis.
The search for the missing couple continued Wednesday with investigators from San Diego, Orange County and Riverside County working together.
The couple’s son, Robert Acosta of Riverside County, has also been driving the route he believes his parents would’ve taken in their white 2014 Hyundai Sonata on their way to his home in La Quinta, Calif. The couple’s car also seems to have vanished.
Family members have posted flyers in north San Diego with the missing couple’s photographs and information.
Investigators said the couple’s last cell phone signal was recorded 10 miles away from Valley View Casino at the on-ramp at Interstate 15 and Deer Springs Road.
Acosta said it is unlike his parents to take off without communicating with the family. He worries his parents may have fallen victims to thieves or may have been in a car wreck.
Both are diabetic and dependent on insulin. Acosta has their medicine with him, in hopes that he can give it to them in person.
He's also brought their financial records from their home to give to investigators.
