Mother and Baby Found Dead Weeks After Disappearance in California
Whisper Owen, 36, and her 8-month-old daughter, Sandra McCarty, vanished on July 15 after a doctor’s appointment in Fresno, California. That day, Owen visited her mother and brother before heading home. Later that evening, a license plate reader captured her SUV in Atwater, and surveillance footage showed her changing Sandra’s diaper in a parking lot — their last known sighting.
Initially, the family wasn’t alarmed, as Owen sometimes stayed in Fresno. But after three days of silence, her partner raised concerns. “It just makes it really hard to shut my brain off,” her mother, Vickie Torres, told The L.A. Times.
Weeks later, volunteer divers from Adventures With Purpose located Owen’s silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer submerged in a canal near Highway 120 in San Joaquin County. Inside were the bodies of Whisper and Sandra. “She was doing everything she could…to try to save her daughter,” the dive team shared online.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the cause. A GoFundMe has been launched to support funeral costs for the mother of four and her baby girl.
