The month-long search for a missing California mother and her baby daughter has ended in heartbreak after their SUV was discovered submerged in water, with both of them inside.

Whisper Owen, 36, and her eight-month-old daughter, Sandra McCarty, vanished on July 15 following a routine doctor’s appointment in Fresno. For weeks, their disappearance left family, friends, and authorities grasping for answers. What began as a day filled with ordinary stops and visits ended in tragedy, and the mystery of how their vehicle wound up underwater is now the subject of an official investigation.

Owen, a mother of four from Sacramento County, started her day before dawn. At around 4 a.m., she left her Elk Grove home with Sandra. Their first stop was at her mother’s house, before heading to an 8:30 a.m. doctor’s appointment for Sandra in Fresno. According to KTLA, the day seemed normal enough—after the appointment, Owen spent time with her brother until nearly 3 p.m. She returned briefly to her mother’s home before setting out for the drive back toward Sacramento with her daughter.

By 8 p.m., her silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer was picked up by a license plate reader in Atwater, roughly 65 miles from Fresno. Investigators believe she may have stopped in the area to use the restroom or pick up baby formula. Surveillance footage from a nearby smoke shop showed her tending to Sandra, changing her diaper in the parking lot. That would prove to be the last confirmed sighting of mother and child alive.

Initially, there was little sense of alarm. Owen’s mother, Vickie Torres, explained to reporters that her daughter sometimes stayed in Fresno longer than expected, so the lack of immediate contact did not raise red flags. But by the third day, when no one had heard from her, the worry became impossible to ignore.

Her partner, who has not been publicly identified, reached out to Torres to see if she had news. That phone call, Torres said, was the moment everything turned. “So then everything started to get scary at that point,” she told The L.A. Times. The fear only deepened with each passing hour. Torres admitted that her mind ran constantly through terrible possibilities. “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.”

Despite extensive searches, investigators initially found no sign of foul play. The Fresno Police Department said publicly that there was no immediate evidence suggesting Whisper and her daughter had been harmed. Still, the absence of clues left the family in torment, clinging to hope but fearing the worst.

The breakthrough came when volunteer divers from Adventures With Purpose, a nonprofit group known for locating missing persons, joined the effort. Using sonar technology, the team scoured waterways near the areas Owen was last seen. Their search led them to a canal beneath a bridge near Highway 120 and Victory Avenue in San Joaquin County, about 40 miles from Atwater.

There, they located the Trailblazer pinned beneath the water. With the assistance of Angeles Recovery, the group confirmed the devastating truth: Whisper and Sandra were inside. “She was doing everything she could as a mother to try to save her daughter Sandra,” the group wrote in a statement, paying tribute to the final moments of a mother’s desperate attempt to protect her baby.

Authorities later confirmed the discovery, and the California Highway Patrol has opened an investigation into how the SUV ended up submerged. At this stage, officials have not indicated whether it was an accident or if other factors may have played a role.

For the family, however, the questions are secondary to the grief of an unimaginable loss. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help cover funeral expenses for Whisper and Sandra, and messages of condolences have poured in from across the state. Friends and strangers alike have written heartfelt tributes, mourning a mother described as devoted and loving, and a baby girl whose life ended far too soon.

The tragedy has resonated widely, in part because of how relatable the story is: a mother juggling appointments, family visits, and the exhausting rhythm of caring for an infant. In one moment she was simply changing a diaper in a parking lot; in the next, she and her child were gone without explanation. The ordinariness of the day only amplifies the sorrow of its ending.

For Whisper’s mother, the nightmare of imagining endless scenarios has now been replaced with the heartbreak of reality. Yet even in grief, she clings to a small measure of comfort—that her daughter and granddaughter were found together, and that Whisper’s final moments were spent trying to protect the baby she loved so fiercely.

As the investigation continues, the story of Whisper Owen and Sandra McCarty stands as a haunting reminder of how quickly life can change, and how fragile our sense of safety can be. It has also highlighted the extraordinary efforts of volunteer groups like Adventures With Purpose, whose work brings closure to families living in torment.

In the end, the tragedy leaves behind four children who have lost their mother, a family shattered by grief, and a community united in mourning. For those who followed the search, the heartbreaking discovery marks the end of hope, but also the beginning of remembrance—of Whisper’s devotion as a mother and Sandra’s brief but precious life.