Woodland Hills : Missing Mother Found Safe in Van

A 45-year-old Thousand Oaks woman who vanished last week after dropping off her younger son at school was found Tuesday by police sleeping in her Ford Aerostar van in Woodland Hills.

Lidia Alarcon apparently was suffering from depression related to an automobile accident last year and had stayed in the van since her disappearance, her husband, Anibal Alarcon, said.

She was treated Tuesday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition, and was transferred late Tuesday to a private hospital in Thousand Oaks.

The mother of two vanished Jan. 9 after taking the couple’s 11-year-old son, Kevin, to school in Thousand Oaks. Family members had notified friends, neighbors, authorities and the media of the woman’s disappearance.

Lidia Alarcon had been in therapy and taking anti-depressant medication since she was injured in the accident last April, her husband said.

After taking her son to school, she apparently headed for the former Woodland Hills office of a therapist in search of help. However, she told her husband that after discovering the therapist was no longer there, she pulled over onto a side street, where she stayed for the next week, apparently unwilling to talk even with family members.

Los Angeles police responded before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to a report of someone living in a van in a Woodland Hills neighborhood.