Update Monday A watery graveyard of human wreckage (Modesto Bee)
For decades, a stretch of the Delta-Mendota Canal near Patterson has been a place of fatal car wrecks, suicides and accidental drownings...The Delta-Mendota now is the focal point in the search for 4-year-old Patterson resident Juliani Cardenas and his suspected kidnapper, Jose Esteban Rodriguez. A farmworker told authorities he saw a car matching Rodriguez's Toyota Corolla, with a man and a boy in it, plunge into the canal Tuesday, soon after Rodriguez is suspected of having snatched Juliani from his grandmother's arms.Fresh tire tracks and other evidence support the farmworker's story, sheriff's officials say, and there has been no trace of Juliani or Rodriguez since Tuesday.
KCRA is providing rolling updates as events occur.
Update 9:06 p.m. Sheriff's deputies: Statewide amber alert called off (KFSN Fresno)
Sheriff's deputies in the north valley have called off a statewide amber alert for a young boy kidnapped four days ago. The victim is 4-year-old Juliani Cardenas. Investigators say his mother's ex-boyfriend took him from his home in Patterson. Authorities have focused their search on a nearby canal after a witness reported seeing a vehicle matching the description of the alleged kidnapper go into the water. Officers from the Merced county sheriff's department again assisted in the search today using special equipment that can see under the murky water. "It's sonar technology, it's soundwaves that are sent out and then received by the unit, that's interpreted into a picture that we can see, a dimensional picture with shadows and shapes," Cdr. James Buttrey said. The Merced county sheriff's department announced tonight they would suspend their search for the car in the canal until early next week. Full article
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