SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — David Lavau’s children drove along the curved mountain road, stopping to peer over the drop-offs and call for their missing father.

Then, finally, a faint cry: “Help, help.” The voice not only let Lavau’s three adult children find him, it also may have brought closure to another family and another missing persons case.

Six days after his car plunged 200 feet into a ravine, Lavau, 68, was saved Thursday by his children, who searched a highway between their father’s northern Los Angeles County home and Ventura County, where a detective told them Lavau’s bank and cellphone calls had placed him, sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Mike Parker said.

Lavau survived by eating bugs and leaves and drinking creek water, a doctor said. He was in serious but stable condition Friday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital with three rib fractures, a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and fractures in his back, said emergency room physician Dr. Garrett Sutter. 

Dr. Ranbir Singh, the hospital’s trauma director, said Lavau told him he was temporarily blinded by an oncoming car’s headlights about 7 p.m. He braked, but failed to gain traction. The car plunged. He said he was unsure if he collided with the car.

However, a second car containing a decomposed male body was next to Lavau’s vehicle in a case believed to be unrelated.

That car was identified as belonging to Melvin Gelfand, 88, who had been reported missing Sept. 14, said Los Angeles police Detective Marla Ciuffetelli.

Gelfand’s son-in-law Will Matlack said the coroner’s office told the family that it was trying to make a positive identification of Gelfand’s body by matching dental records or fingerprints.

How Gelfand ended up 50 miles north of Los Angeles remains a mystery, Matlack said.