Update: Body found in canal near Gustine identified as Lupita Ontiveros
Update:
The Merced County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office announced Tuesday that the body found in the Delta-Mendota Canal on Sunday was Lupita Ontiveros, the 21-year-old woman from Stockton who has been missing since a dune buggy crash on Jan. 28.
“Our thoughts are with Lupita’s family and loved ones during this tragic time,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Evelyn Ontiveros, the victim’s cousin, created a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had raised more than $15,000.
Original story:
The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said a woman’s body was found in a canal Sunday morning seven miles from where a Stockton woman went missing after a dune buggy crash 11 days ago.
Authorities are hopeful it is the body of Lupita Ontiveros, a 21-year-old woman from Stockton who has been missing since the crash.
Positive identification will be conducted by the Merced County Coroner’s Office, and notification of next of kin will occur prior to the release of any identifying information about the woman, according to a Sheriff’s Office Facebook post.
The body was found in the Delta-Mendota Canal near Whitworth Road and Cottonwood Road, seven miles from the site of the crash on Jan. 28.
At about 10:15 a.m. Sunday, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a body in the canal. The Sheriff’s Office’s Water Recovery and Rescue Team responded and recovered the body.
Ontiveros, mother of an 18-month-old, went missing after the dune buggy, driven by a 21-year-old Patterson man, crashed into the Delta-Mendota canal just after midnight, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The driver, Elixandro Naranjo Miranda, fled the scene but was eventually arrested on felony hit-and-run and other charges.
Two of the three passengers in the dune buggy were able to escape the canal. Family members have said Ontiveros did not know how to swim.
This story was originally published February 8, 2026 at 2:41 PM.
