Woman dies, another survives night in creek following Mendocino County crash

Best friends Natalie Griffin and Jenna Santos were on winter vacation, headed back Wednesday night to the East Bay from a day spent at Humboldt State looking at apartments.

But about 7:30 p.m. Santos, 19, driving a 2004 Toyota Corolla, hydroplaned on Highway 101, and the car ran off the highway and into swollen Outlet Creek.

Both women were conscious, but the car rapidly filled with water. Only Griffin, 19, of Castro Valley, escaped with her life.

Her survival came after clinging for 12 hours to a tree 100 yards from shore, then swimming to the river bank, climbing up and flagging down a passing car.

Griffin’s cousin, Monica Keyser, 28, also of Castro Valley, was at Griffin’s home Thursday night, where the teen was recovering, and provided details of the crash.

According to her, once the car settled in the river near mile marker 57 near the junction of Highways 101 and 162, the girls tried unsuccessfully to kick out the windshield. As water streamed into the car, Griffin noticed the rear window was broken.

“She told Jenna to come back that way,” Keyser said, but Santos never appeared. “Natalie thinks her foot got stuck.”

Griffin escaped into the strong current, which swept her to a nearby tree. She clung to it through the night, screaming for help at the cars driving on the road above her.

She held on all night as temperatures dipped to 28 degrees. At sunrise, she swam toward what she thought was an island, but it was only debris. She swam to shore, climbed to the top of the hill and flagged down a passing car. She was taken to Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, where she was told her body temperature dipped to 90 degrees.

Around 8:20 a.m. Thursday, the California Highway Patrol, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Little Lake Fire Department’s swift water rescue team found Santos’ body.

Keyser said Thursday her cousin was “doing pretty good.” They ate Mexican food, Griffin’s first meal since the crash.

Griffin and Santos graduated from Castro Valley High School in 2015. Griffin is a student at Chabot College in Hayward.

The vehicle was later pulled from the water, the CHP said, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

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