Overview

• Volunteer search group Adventures With Purpose and diver Juan Heredia located a submerged SUV pinned under a bridge in an irrigation canal near Oakdale/Escalon.
• San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office dive teams pulled the vehicle from the canal on August 17 and recovered an adult and an infant inside.
• Family members have identified the remains as those of Whisper Owen and her eight-month-old daughter Sandra McCarty, though officials have not yet completed formal identification or released cause of death.
• Investigators revised their route assumptions after phone ping data indicated Owen and her daughter traveled north to Waterford and then east on Highway 120 before the vehicle entered the canal.
• The Sacramento County District Attorney’s office confirmed Owen had an outstanding warrant tied to a 2022 child abuse case, which investigators say may explain her use of remote back roads.