[chris]

Chandler attorney Conrad Hernandez, 47, and his 7-year-old son Max were found dead May 9, 2010, in a ravine off Interstate 17 north of Black Canyon City, two days after Hernandez called 911 to say he had crashed and could not move, according to police records.

Hernandez called a Yavapai County Sheriff's Office dispatcher at 12:37 p.m. on May 7, saying he had run his Mazda 3 off the highway and was too injured to move. He said his son was with him but could not say whether the boy was conscious. Asked where he was, he said only "north of Phoenix" and "off of the first rest stop," according to a recording of the call later obtained by Chandler police.

Officers searched the area that day but found no skid marks or damaged guardrails and could not locate the crash, the Department of Public Safety said. Hernandez's wife, Karen, reported her husband and son missing to Chandler police later that Friday afternoon, unaware he had already called 911.

On Sunday, after a Chandler officer investigating the disappearance learned of the earlier call and asked DPS to send a helicopter, searchers found the wreckage. A DPS helicopter out of Kingman, sent after Flagstaff aircraft were reported out of service, spotted Hernandez's red Mazda at the bottom of a 200-foot ravine five miles south of the Sunset Point rest area shortly before 5 p.m. The car had rolled several times, ejecting both Hernandez and Max, according to the police report.

Family members gave police differing accounts of Hernandez's state of mind in the days before the crash. His wife said he had seemed depressed over financial problems but had not talked of suicide. Two family friends told investigators he had spoken of suicidal thoughts and had once described an elaborate plan to jump from a New York theater balcony two years earlier, when he was found unharmed. Investigators did not publicly say why the car left the highway.

A Yavapai County medical examiner's report released in September found that Hernandez and his son died of injuries from the crash itself, according to the DPS accident report. DPS said it was looking into the delayed search but did not answer further questions about why it took two days to find them.

Max attended Chrysalis Academy in Tempe, a school for children with autism, which canceled classes and held a candlelight vigil after his death. "He was beloved. He had an infectious smile and a sparkling personality," said De Freedman, president of the school's parents association.