California man found alive days after car plunged off cliff

A 67-year-old California man was found alive by his family on Thursday days after his car went off a road and plunged 200 feet to the bottom of a mountain, KTLA reports.

David LaVau, of Lake Hughes, California, disappeared last Friday night.

According to KTLA, LaVau's family thought he may have taken a trip to see his girlfriend. But after a few days went by, they began to grow concerned, and kicked off their own search and rescue effort.

"We got credit cards, we got cell phone [records], we broke into his Facebook," David LaVau's son Sean LaVau said. "Our 12-year-old, Ashley, broke into the cell phone by a code… so we got to find out all the voicemails."

The Associated Press reports that the family enlisted the help of a missing persons detective in Los Angeles:

The detective narrowed the search area using cell phone towers, text messages and debit card purchases, Chardonnay Lavau told NBC and other organizations.

"…we stopped at every ravine and looked over every hill," David LaVau's daughter Lisa LaVau told KCAL. "And then my brother got out of the car and we kept screaming and the next thing, we heard Dad say, ‘Help, help!’ and there he was."

Once they spotted LaVau, below a road near Lake Hughes, California, reaching him was another matter.

"I could not see how to get down," Sean LaVau told KTLA. "I just could not figure it out… So I just slid from tree to tree, grabbing on trees to trees."

According to KCAL, LaVau, who suffered several broken bones in the crash, survived on leaves and water from a nearby creek. As of Friday morning, LaVau was in serious condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.