The last sighting came in Atwater, where Owen was seen changing Sandra’s diaper in a parking lot.
After a month of desperate search, police made a chilling discovery.
A heartbreaking discovery has brought a tragic end to the search for a missing California mother and her baby daughter.
Whisper Owen, 36, and her 8-month-old daughter, Sandra McCarty, vanished on July 15 after a doctor’s appointment in Fresno. On Sunday, weeks later, the pair were found dead inside their SUV, which had been pinned underwater beneath a bridge, according to authorities and multiple reports.
The final hours
Owen, a mother of four from Sacramento County, left Elk Grove with her infant daughter around 4 a.m. that day. She first stopped at her mother’s home before checking into Sandra’s doctor’s appointment at 8:30 a.m, according to KTLA.
Afterward, she visited her brother in Fresno until about 2:45 p.m., then returned briefly to her mother’s house. By 5 p.m., she was back on the road, heading home with Sandra.
That evening, around 8 p.m., a license plate reader picked up her silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer in Atwater — roughly 65 miles from Fresno. Investigators believe she may have stopped to use the restroom or buy baby formula.
Surveillance video from a nearby smoke shop also captured her changing Sandra’s diaper in the parking lot.
That would be the last time mother and daughter were ever seen alive.
The growing fear
At first, Owen’s disappearance didn’t immediately raise alarms. Her mother, Vickie Torres, told The L.A. Times that her daughter sometimes stayed in Fresno for days at a time.
But after three days without contact, Owen’s partner — who has not been identified— called Torres to see if she had heard from her.
“So then everything started to get scary at that point,” Torres said.
“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,” Torres continued.
“And that beautiful little baby. God, I hope, whatever happened, she’s with her mama.”
The Fresno Police Department said in a statement to The Times that investigators had found no evidence of foul play in the disappearance of Whisper and her child.
Found underwater
The breakthrough came when volunteer divers with Adventures With Purpose, a nonprofit dedicated to finding missing persons, joined the search.
Using sonar, they located Owen’s SUV submerged in a canal beneath a bridge near Highway 120 and Victory Avenue in San Joaquin County—about 40 miles from where she was last seen.
“With the help of Juan Heredia from Angeles Recovery, we were able to confirm Whisper is inside the vehicle,” the group posted on Facebook. “She was doing everything she could as a mother to try to save her daughter Sandra.”
Authorities later confirmed both Owen and Sandra were inside the SUV when it was pulled from the water.
The California Highway Patrol is now investigating how the vehicle ended up submerged. Meanwhile, loved ones are grieving and rallying support.
A GoFundMe has been launched to help cover funeral expenses for the 36-year-old mother and her baby girl.
Sending prayers and condolences to the family. And prayers for those Whisper and Sandra left behind, this is such a horrible tragedy
