California Searchers Find Woman’s Body and Items Belonging to Missing Family

For nearly a week, investigators in Northern California have been searching for a family of four who vanished during a road trip. Finally, the rain-swollen river where the rescuers have been focusing their search has given up its first clues, authorities said.

On Friday morning, searchers located the body of an unidentified adult woman about 7 miles north of the reported crash site, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Previously, personal items that were “consistent with a family traveling on vacation” as well as parts from a car that belonged to the missing family had been plucked from the fast-moving waters of the Eel River, which winds through five counties for nearly 200 miles.

“It does confirm the fact the vehicle that was seen going into the river was that of the Thottapilly family,” the California Highway Patrol said late Thursday.

Conditions in the Eel River, engorged with several days’ worth of rainfall, had hampered the search effort. But its waters may have begun to recede.

“The body was found on exposed terrain” that appeared to have been covered by recent heavy rains, Capt. Gregory L. Van Patten, field services commander of the sheriff’s office, wrote in the statement.

Since identification of the body is pending, all four members of the family — Sandeep, 42, a bank executive; his wife, Soumya, 38; and their children, Siddhant, 12, and Saachi, 9 — are still considered missing. An autopsy is scheduled for next week.

It was the second time in a month that rescuers in Mendocino County, north of San Francisco, have searched for a missing family after a vehicle plunged into water. In the earlier crash, members of the Hart family were believed to have died when their vehicle went over a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean. The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart and three of their six adopted children were recovered. The whereabouts of remaining three teenagers were unknown, although a body thought to be one of them was found last week.

In the latest case, the Thottapilly family had taken a road trip from their home in Santa Clarita, California, to Oregon for spring break. On their return April 5, they spoke of plans to stop and visit relatives in San Jose the following day, the San Jose Police Department said in a statement.

But they never made it, and it was the last anyone heard from them, police said.

On April 8, the relatives in San Jose contacted the police department and officially reported the family missing, telling authorities that the family had been traveling from Portland.

Anxious acquaintances and relatives shared information online about the Thottapilly family, their smiling faces beaming out from missing persons posters. India’s minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, said Wednesday that she had been in touch with her country’s consulate in San Francisco after Sandeep Thottapilly’s father, who lives in Gujarat, a state in western India, asked for her help.

Investigators began to examine the possibility that the disappearance might be linked to a report that the highway patrol received April 6 of a vehicle plummeting into the Eel River from U.S. 101, a north-south highway that runs through Washington state, Oregon and California.

But the river had turned swollen and fast after days of stormy weather, and at first the rescuers were unable to search it. The California Highway Patrol said this week that a submerged vehicle had been spotted but then lost in the current.

Fast waters meant a slow-moving search. A piece of burgundy plastic, believed to be part of a side window, surfaced earlier this week, but authorities were hesitant about saying whether it belonged to the family’s Honda Pilot of the same color.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, rescue teams pressed on with a search along the river bank, the highway patrol’s local branch in Garberville said. They used an underwater probe to see if the vehicle or anything metallic could be located. They deployed boats, or used flotation devices to explore under overhanging trees or tight areas not accessible by boat.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office also assisted, using a sonar system.

They made headway over about 12 miles of river bank during two days of searching.

On Thursday, the highway patrol said the recovered objects — the vehicle parts and personal items — were confirmed by family members as belonging to the Thottapillys.