(KTLA) A 36-year-old mother of four from Sacramento County and her 8-month-daughter who vanished weeks ago after a doctor’s visit in Fresno were discovered dead Sunday in an SUV “pinned” beneath a bridge, underwater, according to law enforcement and multiple media reports.
Whisper Owen and her daughter, Sandra McCarty, were last seen on July 15, officials with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
The pair left Elk Grove, where Owen and her partner live with their three other children, at around 4 a.m. that day to make the approximately 160-mile drive to Fresno. Owen’s The 36-year-old stopped at her mother’s house before the appointment to change Sandra’s diaper and then checked in with the doctor’s office at 8:30 a.m.
After the 8-month-old’s doctor visit, Owen and her daughter visited her brother’s Fresno home until about 2:45 p.m. that afternoon before once again stopping at her mother’s and, eventually, leaving Fresno around 5 p.m.
At around 8 p.m., a license plate reader in Atwater, approximately 65 miles from Fresno, spotted Owen’s silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer, where Torres believes she likely stopped to use the restroom and, maybe, get baby formula for Sandra.
Surveillance footage from a nearby smoke shop in Atwater showed Owen changing Sandra’s diaper in the parking lot about a half hour before, authorities said.
No one had seen or heard from the pair since.
Owen’s mother previously told The L.A. Times that it was not uncommon for her to stay in Fresno for days at a time, so when she didn’t hear from her daughter’s partner that she never made it home, it didn’t occur to her to be worried.
It wasn’t until three days later that Owen’s partner, who has not been identified, called Torres to ask about Owen.
“So then everything started to get scary at that point,” Torres had said.
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Whisper Owen, 36, and Sandra McCarty, 8 months old, were last seen on July 15, 2025. (FCSO) -
Fresno County Missing Persons Bulletin for Whisper Owen and her daughter Sandra McCarty. (FCSO)
Owen’s 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer was located Sunday by volunteer divers, Adventures With Purpose, an organization that helps search for missing persons, said in a post to Facebook.
“With the help of Juan Heredia from Angeles Recovery, we were able to confirm Whisper is inside the vehicle,” the organization wrote. “She was doing everything she could as a mother to try to save her daughter Sandra.”
The volunteer organization, according to local affiliate KTLA’s Fresno sister station, used sonar to pinpoint the location of Owen’s vehicle beneath the bridge in an underwater canal near Highway 120 and Victory Avenue in San Joaquin County approximately 40 miles from where they were last seen in Atwater.
The vehicle has since been removed from the water by San Joaquin County emergency Services and, according to The Times, officials with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office have confirmed that the bodies of Owens and her daughter were inside.
Previously, sheriff’s investigators said they had not found any evidence to suggest foul play was involved in the mother and baby’s disappearance.
California Highway Patrol is now handling the investigation into how the SUV ended up submerged underwater.
Devastated family members have organized a GoFundMe to help lay the 36-year-old mother and her 8-month-old daughter to rest.
