Overview

• A volunteer dive team led by Adventures With Purpose discovered a vehicle matching Owen’s description submerged in a San Joaquin County irrigation canal on Sunday.
• The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the bodies of Whisper Owen and her 8-month-old daughter Sandra McCarty were found inside the recovered 2006 Chevy Trailblazer.
• Owen’s family and private searchers criticized law enforcement for delayed and insufficient earlier searches that missed the canal despite aerial and underwater drone sweeps.
• Fresno Police sent detectives to the scene and are coordinating with San Joaquin County sheriff’s deputies and the California Highway Patrol on a joint investigation.
• Investigators are examining whether Owen’s broken headlight and an outstanding child-abuse warrant led her to take backroads through Waterford and Highway 120 before her vehicle entered the canal.