BREAKING: Bodies recovered from submerged vehicle in Mendocino County are missing family members

Investigators have located the vehicle belonging to a missing southern California family, with the bodies of a father and daughter inside. Earlier, the body of an adult female was found in the same river in Leggett, California.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office announced in a press release on Monday that search and rescue divers had found the vehicle belonging to the Thottapilly family, reported missing last weekend after they did not return from a road trip to Oregon as expected. Witnesses saw a vehicle go off the road into the rain-swollen Eel River last Friday during a period of heavy storms in the area.

Sandeep and Soumya Thottapuilly and their two children, 12-year-old Siddhanty and 9-year-old Saachi were in the car at the time.

On Sunday, searchers discovered a vehicle submerged underwater, with two bodies inside. After the vehicle was partially removed from the river, authorities were able to visually identify Sandeep Thottapilly  and Saachi Thottapilly.

A day earlier, authorities identified the adult female found in the river as Soumya Thottapilly. Siddhant Thottapilly, 12, remains missing; and recovery efforts will continue on Monday.

Autopsies are expected to be performed this week.

The family went missing in the same area where Jennifer Hart drove her family off a cliff in an apparent murder-suicide in late March. Three of her six adopted children are still missing, and according to the sheriff’s office most recent update, the rescue and recovery operations have remained suspended for several days because of dangerous ocean conditions.

 

[Feature image: Thottapilly Family/Facebook]