The body of the missing 10-year-old girl was found after a Panga boat capsized near the California coast
Authorities have confirmed the identity of the body that rushed on the shore on San Diego County last week as a 10-year-old girl, and a Ponga ship reportedly disappeared after tilting along the shore with immigrants.
Mahi Brijeshkumar Patel was one of four passengers who died after the captain on May 5, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.
She turned 10 two days before the accident. Her shower gel was washed on May 21 on the shore of Tory Pines State Beach.
Her 14-year-old brother Prince Brijeshkumar Patel also died in the incident. His death was ruled as accidental drowning. Officials said the siblings’ parents were rescued, but the father was still in a coma. This family is from India.
The family boarded the Pangaboat, a small boat with an outboard motor, and several others capsized on Del Mar Beach.
Coast Guard Public Affairs Officer Hunter Schnabel said the U.S. Coast Guard received a call about a small PANGA-style ship that was estimated to have 16 people overturned north of Tory Pines State Beach.
The third drowning victim was identified as 18-year-old Marcos Lozada-Juarez. The fourth victim has not been determined. Authorities have not confirmed the final total of how many people were on board.
Authorities reportedly began to be arrested.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the two were Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, of Mexican national, arrested on suspicion of smuggling passengers on board.
Hours later, in Chula Vista, just 10 miles from the Mexican border, Border Patrol agents discovered a car that was seen earlier near the scene of the accident and arrested three passengers, but the driver fled.
Prosecutors said agents continued their investigation and eventually blocked two other vehicles involved in the smuggling incident and found eight of the nine missing migrants.
The driver of the vehicle – Melissa Jenelle Cota, 33; Gustavo Lara, 32; Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31, was arrested and charged with transporting an undocumented immigrant who could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Times worker Clara Harter contributed to the report.
