Lost Couple Use 'Mind-Boggling' Survival Technique To Stay Alive In California Desert
(CBS) – A former Chicago man and his girlfriend who went missing in California for several days have been found alive, and the couple survived in part by drinking their own urine.
Aaron Morganstein, 33, and 27-year-old Mariya Mitkova disappeared last week after heading out for a camping trip in the sand dunes of southern California.
Their family feared the worst. Then they got the good news Friday: the couple was found, alive, near the Mexican border.
They told authorities they got turned around on a hike at an area called Osbourne Lookout.
They spent five days walking without food or water and said they drank their own urine to try to stay alive.
"They used a survival technique and drank their own urine, which is just sort of mind-boggling to me," Teri Talan of Chicago, Mogranstein's mother, tells CBS 2's Brad Edwards.
They even set fires in hopes helicopters overhead could see them.
The couple finally spotted a cell tower, walked toward it finding maintenance workers who called border patrol.
"I feel like I woke up from a nightmare," Talan says. She flew to California this week.
Reunions were underway.
