Who Is Olivia Hannah Gonzalez? Highway 1 Road Trip Ends In Death For Los Angeles Woman After Big Sur Vacation

Local authorities have identified a body found near the wreckage site of a car accident on Highway 1 Wednesday as Olivia Hannah Gonzalez from the Los Angeles suburb of North Hollywood. Gonzalez, 20, had been missing since Dec. 23 when she and her boyfriend, Brian Fernandez, 21, left for a holiday vacation for Big Sur, California, a small coastal town known for its redwood trees and purple sand beaches.

Her body was discovered near a smashed Honda Civic, which had plummeted 325 feet from a cliff on Highway 1 by the shoreline near San Luis Obispo, California. The couple had been expected to return from their roadtrip on Christmas day, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. They brought two dogs along with them.

A search team spotted Gonzalez’ body from a helicopter 15 feet from the crashed car, according to the Los Angeles Times Wednesday. Local firefighters were dispatched to the crash site Tuesday around 3:30 p.m. local time where they also discovered the remains of one of the dog’s bodies, a brown Labrador retriever, near Gonzalez's.

Neither Fernandez’s body nor the second dog were found as of Thursday morning.

An autopsy of the body was performed Wednesday, and the reasons for her death was still being investigated, a representative of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, Tony Cipolla, said. Foul play is not suspected, he said.

It is believed that Fernandez’s body could have been flung into the ocean after the crash. Dive crews have reportedly been dispatched to search the area. It is also possible his body could still be under the car, which Cipolla described as “ pretty smashed up.”

Highway 1 is a popular route among roadtrippers as it stretches the length of California alongside the Pacific Ocean, offering pristine views of coastal towns such as Santa Barbara and Monterey. The San Luis Obispo area where Gonzalez’s body was found, is roughly 200 miles south of San Francisco, California.

Sheriff's officials reportedly alerted Gonzalez’s family about the news Wednesday.

“The body they found on the rocks is that of my sister, Olivia … she was a beautiful soul,” Gonzalez’s sister, Vanessa Guzman, wrote in a Facebook post. “This pains me to even start this. Prayers for my family at this time is greatly appreciated, we are grieving at this time.”