Authorities have confirmed the identification of a physique that washed ashore in San Diego County final week as a 10-year-old woman who was reported lacking after a Panga boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast.
Mahi Brijeshkumar Patel was certainly one of 4 passengers who died after their boat capsized on Could 5, in line with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Workplace.
She had turned 10 simply two days earlier than the accident. Her physique washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Seaside on Could 21.
Her 14-year-old brother, Prince Brijeshkumar Patel, additionally died within the incident. His demise was dominated an unintended drowning. The siblings’ mother and father had been each rescued however the father stays in a coma, officers stated. The household is from India.
The household was aboard the Pangaboat, a small boat with an outboard motor, together with a number of different folks when it capsized at Del Mar Seaside.
The U.S. Coast Guard acquired a name round 6:30 a.m. {that a} small panga-style boat with an estimated 16 folks on board had overturned simply north of Torrey Pines State Seaside, stated Hunter Schnabel, a Coast Guard public affairs officer.
The third drowning sufferer was recognized as Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 18. The fourth sufferer has not but been recognized. Authorities haven’t confirmed a remaining whole of how many individuals had been aboard the boat.
Authorities started making arrests quickly after the capsized boat was reported.
Two folks — Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, each Mexican nationals — had been arrested on the seashore on suspicion of smuggling the passengers on the boat, in line with the U.S. Division of Justice.
A couple of hours later in Chula Vista, simply 10 miles from the Mexican border, Border Patrol brokers noticed a automobile, which had been seen earlier close to the accident scene, and arrested three of its passengers, however the driver received away.
Brokers continued their investigation and ultimately stopped two different autos concerned within the smuggling incident and found eight of the 9 lacking migrants, in line with prosecutors.
The drivers of the autos — Melissa Jenelle Cota, 33; Gustavo Lara, 32; and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31 — had been arrested and charged with the transportation of undocumented immigrants, which is punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
Occasions workers author Clara Harter contributed to this report.
