Missing Northern California mother, infant found dead in submerged vehicle

[Desmond Milligan 0]

The Brief

• Whisper Owen, 36, and her 8-month-old daughter were last seen on July 15.

• The mother and daughter were on their way home to Elk Grove from Fresno when they went missing, investigators said.

• The bodies of the mother and baby were found on Sunday in San Joaquin County.

OAKDALE, Calif. - The bodies of a 36-year-old Northern California woman and her infant daughter, who had been missing for more than a month, have been found in a vehicle submerged in a waterway.

What we know

Whisper Owen’s 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer was pulled from a canal in the area of Highway 120 and Victory Road, west of Oakdale in San Joaquin County, on Sunday.

Last seen on July 15

Fresno police said Owen and her 8-month-old baby, Sandra McCarty, were last seen on July 15. As part of the search, investigators had issued a missing persons alert, saying the pair had been in Fresno earlier that day and were supposed to be heading home to Elk Grove in Sacramento County.

But they never made it back.

A traffic camera last spotted Owen’s vehicle on July 15 in the city of Atwater in Merced County, almost 40 miles from where her SUV was discovered.

What we don't know

There’s no word on how the vehicle ended up in the water.

On Facebook, an underwater search and recovery group called Adventures with Purpose said its team was on scene where the vehicle was found on Sunday and had used its sonar equipment to locate the bodies of the mother and child.

The volunteer-based group said Owen and her baby were in the vehicle which was pinned under a bridge.

"She was doing everything she could as a mother to try to save her daughter Sandra," Adventures with Purpose wrote.

SEE ALSO: Concord man missing after jumping into Sacramento River

On Monday, the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner’s Office told KTVU, "We have presumptive identification of 36-year-old Whisper Owen and 8-month-old Sandra McCarty."

Owen had 3 other children

In a GoFundMe set up by Owen’s brother, he said that the mother leaves behind three other children.

Richard Owen said he hoped to raise money to help with his sister’s and infant niece’s cremation, funeral service, and cemetery plot.

"Unfortunately I dont know why this has happened to my loving sister and her beautiful daughter," the brother said. "But I know they have departed from this world and are moving on to a better place."

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