A 36-year-old Sacramento woman and her infant daughter were found submerged under a bridge Sunday morning weeks after they were reported missing following a doctor’s appointment, according to a volunteer rescue group and law enforcement officials.
Whisper Owen and her 8-month-old daughter, Sandra McCarty, were last seen in Atwater on July 15 on their way home from a doctor’s appointment. The search ended in tragedy Sunday when Owen and her daughter were found “pinned under a bridge, underwater,” inside their truck, according to a Facebook post published by Adventures With Purpose, a volunteer dive team that helps search for missing persons.
“She was doing everything she could as a mother to try to save her daughter Sandra,” the post said of Owen.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the bodies of both Owen and her daughter were found inside the car, a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer. The vehicle was found near Highway 120 and Victory Avenue in San Joaquin County, the statement read.
Fresno police previously said they did not suspect foul play in the disappearances. The California Highway Patrol is investigating how the vehicle wound up submerged, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department.
Owen and her daughter left Sacramento around 4 a.m. on July 15 and headed south toward Fresno for a doctor’s appointment for the baby. Owen stopped at her mother’s home to change the child’s diaper and then checked in for the appointment at 8:30 a.m., according to Owen’s mother, Vickie Torres.
Owen visited her brother and returned to her mother’s house before 5 p.m. Her silver Trailblazer was detected by a license-plate reader in Atwater, about 65 miles from Fresno, at 8 that night, authorities said.
Mother and daughter were last spotted on security footage from a smoke shop in Atwater that captured Owen parking and then changing Sandra’s diaper around 7:30 p.m., police said.
As family and authorities were searching for the pair, Vickie Torres told The Times: “It just makes it really hard for me as her mother to shut my brain off and not constantly imagine what could’ve happened to her. And that beautiful little baby. God, I hope, whatever happened, she’s with her mama.”
