GUSTINE — The Merced County Sheriff’s Office recovered the body of a woman from the Delta‑Mendota Canal on Sunday morning near Whitworth and Cottonwood roads, roughly seven miles downstream from the site of a Jan. 28 off‑road crash that left a Stockton woman missing.
Sheriff’s officials said they received a report at about 10:15 a.m. Sunday of a body spotted in the canal. Members of the agency’s Water Recovery and Rescue Team responded and recovered the remains of an adult female.
The discovery comes 11 days after a dune‑buggy style RZR carrying four people plunged into the canal south of State Route 140, just outside Gustine. Three occupants — the driver and two female passengers — escaped the sinking vehicle and made it to the bank. The fourth passenger, identified as 21‑year‑old Lupita Ontiveros of Stockton, was swept away and has been missing since the crash. Ontiveros is the mother of an 18‑month‑old daughter…