Aug. 14--A suspected car thief who was fleeing police when she crashed the vehicle and leapt off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge early Wednesday managed to survive the daring 70-foot jump and is now a fugitive, authorities said.
Erlynn Kay Sanchez-Edwards, 25, jumped off the bridge just after 2 a.m. Wednesday as officers approached her and two other women after the vehicle crash, said Officer Vu Williams of the California Highway Patrol.
Sanchez-Edwards survived the jump and swam toward the shore, Williams said. She then hitched a ride with a dump truck driver who drove her into the city.
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The suspect's jump was not from the bridge's highest point, which is 200 feet above the water, but it was nevertheless significant enough to cause serious injuries.
"It's actually pretty incredible," Williams said.
The two women with Sanchez-Edwards were briefly detained and then released.
Now authorities are looking for Sanchez-Edwards, of Richmond, Calif., who is wanted on suspicion of vehicle theft, hit and run and resisting arrest.
So far, Sanchez-Edwards has managed to evade police, the California Highway Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard.
She was last seen near the intersection of Fremont and Folsom streets in San Francisco.
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