Vehicle found near skeletal remains connected to woman who went missing in 2014
Sheriff’s officials confirmed last week that a vehicle discovered Aug. 23 down a 500-foot embankment off the Angeles Crest Highway is connected to 47-year-old Kimberly Blum, a La Cañada High School graduate and Sunland resident who went missing on June 5, 2014.
Blum was last seen at around 4 p.m. that day at the La Crescenta home of her sister Jennifer Franklin, where the pair were planning an eighth-grade graduation party for Franklin’s daughter, the Glendale News-Press reported at the time of the disappearance.
Although empty pill containers bearing Blum’s name were found days later by a maintenance worker in the Angeles National Forest, no other physical evidence had been found until earlier a week ago.
On the day of the vehicle’s discovery, a Caltrans employee was working out near Angeles Crest Highway Mile Marker 41.69, about 16 miles north of La Cañada Flintridge, when he saw skid marks leading off the side of the road, Lt. Randy Tuinstra, watch commander for the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, confirmed Aug. 24.
Deputies responded to the location and learned an SUV was located at the bottom of a 500-foot embankment in the vicinity of the skid marks, according to a news release issued last Thursday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Montrose Search and Rescue inspected the vehicle, which appeared to have been abandoned for a long time. A check of the vehicle returned information indicating it was connected to Blum, who was said to be driving a silver Honda CRV when she went missing.
In a second search of the incident area, search-and-rescue personnel discovered human skeletal remains near the vehicle. Employees from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner responded with homicide detectives to collect the remains and conduct a thorough search of the area, according to the news release.
In their investigation, it was determined that the skid marks reported by the Caltrans worker were caused by a recent unrelated traffic collision, and not the Honda CRV.
The identity of the victim has yet to be confirmed, according to coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter, who said the department’s Special Operations Response Team initially recovered a jawbone from the scene and discovered additional skeletal remains in a later search.
“We’re trying to get them identified so we can notify the next of kin,” Winter said Monday, adding that exam results from a dentologist and anthropologist were still pending but could be ready by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, those who knew her and supported her family during the two-year search turned out to Kimberly Blum’s still active Facebook page with messages for the missing woman and her family.
Barbara Hodgson, a public relations representative who worked with Blum’s mother, Rosalie Blum, and investigating detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department after the disappearance said Friday she’d learned of the vehicle discovery the previous night after receiving an email from Rosalie Blum.
“We were all hopeful,” she said, describing Kimberly Blum as an intelligent, lively woman. “We were all hoping that she’d taken off and gone to Paris.”
Hodgson called Rosalie Blum as a tireless advocate, not only for the discovery of her own daughter, but for parents of missing children everywhere.
“She really is a champion — she did everything she possibly could to find her daughter,” Hodgson said Friday.
With a positive identification of the remains still pending, Rosalie Blum did not return calls seeking comment.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
