Body of missing Livingston toddler found in canal

A Livingston family’s worst fears were confirmed Monday afternoon when authorities found the body of 3-year-old Andres Tomas trapped in the waters of an irrigation canal near Delhi.

The child was found about 7 feet underwater, trapped in a weir near Lateral 6 of the Turlock Irrigation District canal, near Griffith Road and Leatteau Avenue, approximately 2 miles from the spot where Merced County sheriff’s deputies believe the boy went into the fast-moving waters, Undersheriff Jason Goins said.

“Any time these types of incidents involve children, it’s especially difficult, and after all these years in (law enforcement) it never gets any easier when it involves children,” Goins said.

The boy was located shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, nearly 48 hours after he was reported missing.

His father, also named Andres Tomas, told the Sun-Star the boy was playing in the yard at his grandmother’s home when she “lost sight of him and he just disappeared.”

Tomas spoke with the Sun-Star on Monday morning, before his son was found. Family members declined to comment after the deputies found the boy’s body.

Tomas, 27, said the boy’s grandmother was watching him while the Livingston man was at work in Denair. The boy’s mother was washing clothes, he said.

Sheriff Vern Warnke said his “heart goes out to the grandmother.”

“I’m a grandfather myself, and my heart just breaks for her and the little boy’s whole family,” Warnke said. “Our guys worked tirelessly trying to find this little boy, and it’s just a tragedy that this was the final result.”

Tomas corrected earlier accounts that mistakenly said the family lives in Delhi, not Livingston, and that the boy had been playing with his siblings before he went missing.

“We weren’t there. None of us were there,” he said. The grandmother “lost sight of him and he just disappeared.”

Andres was last seen on the far side of a garden fence, Tomas said. The grandmother went around the garden to get the boy and, by the time she arrived at the spot where he had been, he was gone, Tomas said.

Tomas said he rushed to the house as soon as he was called with the news that the toddler was missing. “I found his footprints right next to the water,” he said.

Tomas said young Andres had never been swimming but loved being near the water. “He liked throwing rocks in the water,” he said. “That’s what I think happened. He bent over to get a rock and tripped and fell over.”

Investigators searched methodically, in a grid pattern, throughout the semi-rural neighborhood. The main focus of the search, however, was the canal, which divers searched with an underwater camera Saturday night and Sunday. They searched about a mile of it south from the home.

While much of the search effort focused on the canal, investigators also spoke with numerous residents in the area and examined surveillance footage from security cameras provided by several businesses in the neighborhood.

The water in the canal is swift and measures about 4 1/2 feet deep, Merced County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Framstad said. Visibility is only about 2 feet.

Turlock Irrigation District officials on Sunday slowed the water flow by about 33 percent to aid the divers, Goins said.

Deputies and search-and-rescue volunteers walked the banks of the canal Sunday as a Sheriff’s Office helicopter hunted overhead.

By Sunday afternoon, the search had slowed after the Sheriff’s Office arranged with the TID, which operates the canal, to slow the flow, a process that takes about 12 hours.

The child was the oldest of Tomas and his wife’s three sons; the others are 2 years old and 1 month old.

Authorities said the boy’s body would be taken to the Coroner’s Office. An autopsy is expected.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Body of missing Livingston toddler found in canal."