Authorities confirmed the identity of the shore-washed body in San Diego County last week as a 10-year-old girl who was reported missing off the coast after a panga ship carried immigrants.
According to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office, Mahi Bryeshumar Patel was one of four passengers who died after capsizing the boat on May 5th.
She turned 10 just two days before the accident. Her body was washed at Torrey Pines State Beach on May 21st.
Her 14-year-old brother, Prince Brijeshkumar Patel, also died in the incident. His death was determined to be a random drowsing. Both the siblings’ parents were rescued, but their father remains in coma, officials said. My family is from India.
The family was on a Panga Boat, a small boat with an overboard motor when it capsized at Del Mar Beach.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a call about 6:30am that a small, panga-style boat on board had been overturned just north of Torrey Pines State Beach, a Coast Guard spokesperson.
The third victim of the drowning was identified as 18-year-old Marcos Rosada Juarez. The fourth victim has not been identified yet. Authorities have not confirmed the final total of the number of people on the boat.
Authorities began arrests shortly after the capsized boat was reported.
Two Jesus Ivan Rodriguez Riva and 30-year-old Julio Cesar Zuniga Luna, 30, were arrested on a beach on suspicion of smuggling passengers on a boat, according to the US Department of Justice.
Hours later, in Chula Vista, just 10 miles from the Mexican border, Border Patrol agents spot a vehicle previously seen near the scene of the accident and arrested three passengers, but the driver escaped.
Prosecutors said the agents continued their investigation and eventually stopped two other vehicles involved in the smuggling case, finding eight of the nine missing immigrants.
Vehicle driver – Melissa Generkota, 33. Gustabolala, 32; Sergio Rojas Fregoso, 31, was arrested and charged with undocumented transport of immigrants.
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
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