Gustine, CA (February 7, 2026) — More than a week after Lupita Lizbeth Zúñiga Ontiveros, 21, went missing following a late-night dune buggy crash into the Delta-Mendota Canal near Gravel Pit Road, her family continues to search the area while pleading for clarity, communication, and continued effort. Standing along the canal where Lupita was last seen, relatives say the uncertainty has been unbearable and that the responsibility of keeping the search alive has increasingly fallen on them and the community.
“This is where she fell in,” said her uncle, Cesar, pointing toward the water. “This is the last place anyone saw her.”
Lupita, a Stockton resident and mother to an infant daughter, left home on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 28, telling family she would return before midnight so she could be with her baby. When she did not come home and stopped responding to messages, concern quickly grew…