Man dies, girlfriend survives after being caught in snowstorm

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Mariah Clifton says her dad’s love of off-roading may have led to his death.

She says her dad probably saw a spot next to the road where he could get a good view of the landscape and stopped, then the storm came through, and he got stuck.

Rodrick Clifton and his girlfriend, Paula Lane, vanished a week ago after leaving his Citrus Heights, Calif., home for a trip up Highway 50 to Nevada.

Clifton’s ’89 Jeep Cherokee got stuck in snow on Burnside Road near Highway 88/89. The couple apparently spent the night there before he went to look for help.

Wednesday night Lane’s brother Gary found her crawling along Highway 88/89. Clifton’s body lay nearby in a snow drift.

Gary Lane used a borrowed CalTrans vehicle to help in the search. He acted on a hunch that his sister and her boyfriend were in the same spot where the two had been off-roading in the past. Friend Brian Roth says he was with Gary Lane when they found Paula.

“We were not going to come back without her,” he said.

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