Mountain Bikers Find Severely Beaten Woman Along Orange County Dirt Road

A badly beaten and partially dressed woman was found Monday by two mountain bikers along a dirt road in the Cleveland National Forest, police said.

The woman had been beaten beyond recognition and left for dead, police said. She was face-down in a pool of blood about 10 feet from Trabuco Creek Road when she was discovered semiconscious and barely able to move shortly after 7 a.m., officials said.

“The woman was beaten so severely with a blunt object that we couldn’t tell her race or her age,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Her identity was not released because she may be a rape victim, he said.

Officials said a weapon used in the attack was found nearby but declined to say what it was. It was unknown whether the attack occurred where the woman was found or how long she had been there, police said.

The woman, described as being in her mid-20s with short, dark hair, was airlifted to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

She remains in critical condition with major head trauma, officials said. “If these two people didn’t find her, she would have died,” Amormino said.