Car of Sacramento mother and baby who were missing for weeks is found underwater
Whisper Owen, 36, 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.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mystery grows as California mom-of-four and 8-month-old daughter remain missing after two week search
Deputies are still searching for a California woman and her 8-month-old daughter who went missing after they left a doctor's appointment more than two weeks ago. Whisper Owen, 36, and her baby daughter, Sandra McCarty, were last seen on July 15, according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office said investigators still have no clues as to where the mother and daughter went or what lead to their disappearance. The duo's loved ones are trying to make sense of the frightening developments. '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,' Owen's mother, Vickie Torres, told the Los Angeles Times. 'And that beautiful little baby. God, I hope, whatever happened, she's with her mama.' The Fresno Police Department's Missing Person's Unit is leading the investigation into the woman and child's disappearance. As of Wednesday, the department had nothing new to report, but noted that there was no reason to suspect foul play was involved in the disappearance. 'There is nothing in the current missing persons investigations which leads us to believe any foul play is involved with Whisper and her child not being located yet,' the department said in a statement to the LA Times. On the day of their disappearance, Owen left her home in Elk Grove, where she lives with her partner and their three other children, around 4 a.m. She was leaving early to make a 160-mile drive to Fresno to make a doctor's appointment for 8-month-old Sandra. After the doctor's visit, Owen visited her brother in Fresno and stayed there until around 2.45 p.m., after which she went to visit her mother's house. She left Fresno around 5 p.m., but never made it home. A license plate reader in Atwater, approximately 65 miles from Fresno, flagged Owen's 2006 Chevy Trailblazer. Surveillance footage from a nearby tobacco shop showed Owen changing Sandra's diaper in the parking lot about a half and hour before the license plate reader picked up her vehicle. No one has heard from or seen the mother or daughter since. Owen's mother, Torres, told the LA Times it wasn't unusual for her to stay in Fresno for days at a time. Three days later, she received a call from Owen's partner, who police have not identified, asking where she was. 'So then everything started to get scary at that point,' Torres told the paper. Torres has been frustrated with the lack of answers from law enforcement. She contacted the Sacramento Police Department and the FBI for help, though she noted that neither have been responsive. "They've all blown me off," she told the LA Times. That's left family members to search the route between Elk Grove and Fresno searching for any sign of Owen. Torres said her daughter's other children are "losing their minds" and insisted her daughter would never run off and abandon her children. She also told the paper that Owen's partner has been "constantly searching, and he's exhausting every resource to him." Owen is 5'6 and weighs approximately 145 pounds. She has blue eyes and brown hair. Her daughter is an infant weighing around 17 pounds with green eyes and brown hair. The Fresno County Sheriff's Department has asked anyone who sees Owen and her daughter to call 911 immediately. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
COLUMN - Can Zuckerberg duck deposition in Meta privacy class action?
By Jenna Greene August 18 (Reuters) -Mark Zuckerberg has better things to do than sit for a deposition. Or so lawyers for Meta Platforms suggest in a pending petition to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, objecting to the billionaire CEO being forced to give testimony in a proposed privacy class action. The company invokes a controversial principle known as the apex doctrine to claim Zuckerberg should be spared the hot seat, arguing that he has no "unique" knowledge of the case, and plaintiffs' lawyers could get the same information from lower-level Meta employees. Plaintiffs want to question the CEO about allegations that Meta obtained private health information from millions of Facebook users without their knowledge or consent via its Pixel tracking tool. The claims echo those in a class action by users of fertility tracking app Flo Health, where a San Francisco jury on August 1 found Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Damages are yet to be determined, but as I previously noted, the total could be huge. In June, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco agreed with U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi and gave the plaintiffs a green light to depose Zuckerberg. However, the judge limited the session to a maximum of three hours and narrowed the scope of allowable questions to center on a consent decree Meta entered into with the Federal Trade Commission involving the Flo app and Zuckerberg's role as a final decisionmaker on privacy-related matters. A Meta spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The company in court papers has denied wrongdoing in both cases. Plaintiffs' lawyers from Gibbs Mura declined to comment for this column. Defense counsel from Latham & Watkins and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in July asked the 9th Circuit for a writ of mandamus to nix the deposition, calling it 'a critically important issue of first impression' for the San Francisco-based court. Mandamus is a 'drastic and extraordinary' request, plaintiffs' lawyers say, arguing that the trial court judge in allowing the deposition committed no clear error to justify such relief. But defense counsel say there's a larger issue at stake than a one-off deposition. Multi-billion-dollar companies like Meta face scores of lawsuits, and their leaders have "uniquely crucial and demanding job duties, as well as limited time," they wrote. That makes being called to testify especially burdensome. District courts within the sprawling 9th Circuit are 'deeply divided' on exactly when and how to properly apply the apex doctrine, Meta lawyers said in asking for appellate guidance. Indeed, spats over deposing CEOs have arisen regularly in court within the 9th Circuit and beyond in cases involving companies including Microsoft, Tesla, Uber, and Alphabet. In some instances, execs were let off the hook, while others were compelled to sit for depositions. Such demands can be more about harassment than a legitimate need for information, the Meta lawyers claim, arguing that deposition testimony is only justified if the executive has unique, first-hand knowledge that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Here, they assert, the bid to depose Zuckerberg is 'a ploy to increase the burdens of this litigation and obtain perceived leverage." Plaintiffs' lawyers counter that state and federal procedural rules already allow subpoenaed witnesses to contest demands for their testimony. There should be 'no special dispensation from civil discovery for corporate executives simply because of their status as titans of industry,' wrote lawyers from Gibbs Mura; Simmons Hanly Conroy; Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll; Kiesel Law; and Terrell Marshall Law Group. The underlying litigation began in 2022, when plaintiffs alleged Meta violated a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law, as well as its own contractual promises governing user privacy on Facebook, my Reuters colleague Jonathan Stempel reported. According to the complaint, Meta Pixel -- an internet analytics tool that Meta makes available to website developers -- provided sensitive information about users' health to Meta when they logged into patient portals where it had been installed, enabling Meta to make money from targeted advertising. Meta in court papers has responded that it should not be held liable if certain healthcare providers allegedly misused Pixel, 'a publicly available tool that Meta did not implement or configure on the providers' websites.' Plaintiffs' lawyers, in justifying their request to question Zuckerberg, argue that from the start he's been implicated in the case. 'He had personal knowledge of Meta's intent to receive this information,' they allege, 'and he knew about and played a key role in Meta's collection of sensitive health data.' The appeals court has not indicated when it will rule on the petition, but Meta lawyers notified the district court that Zuckerberg's deposition may proceed this month in Palo Alto if the 9th Circuit denies its mandamus petition by August 21.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Farmfoods worker 'threatened and assaulted' as goods stolen
A worker was threatened and assaulted as thieves targeted a Wednesbury supermarket. Items - of unknown value - were stolen from Farmfoods in Camp Street on July 30. The incident, which happened at around 3.20pm, has prompted West Midlands Police to launch an appeal. READ MORE: Ladbrokes tragedy as 'lovely' veteran who 'enjoyed a bet' dies after collapse The force has issued two CCTV images of a man and woman officers wish to speak to. An accompanying appeal read: "Do you recognise this man and woman? "We want to speak to them after items were stolen from Farmfoods supermarket on Camp Street, Wednesbury. "It happened at around 3.20pm on 30 July. "A shop worker was also threatened and assaulted. "If you recognise them please call 101 quoting 20/329132/25." READ MORE: 'Blight on community' jailed for breaching ban on begging, urinating and taking drugs in public People can also get in touch using the live chat facility at Stay up-to-date by following our Twitter feed @birmingham_live or liking our Facebook page. To get the latest news emailed to you, sign up here, it's free.
