5 bodies pulled from Calif. waterway after crash
STOCKTON, Calif. — Authorities investigating a deadly weekend SUV crash in a waterway in Northern California are being hampered by an uncooperative 911 caller and conflicting accounts from family members, a California Highway Patrol officer said on Thursday.
Investigators believe they have now recovered the bodies of all five crash victims from the slough west of Stockton after two men were pulled out on Wednesday, Officer James Smith said. The men have not been identified, but authorities have identified the other victims as 28-year-old Rafael Ontiveros of Redwood City, 40-year-old Adrian Pena of Santa Rosa, and Luis Cuevas, whose age and hometown weren’t available.
It’s still not clear, however, where the victims were coming from or headed, their relationship, if any, and what led to Sunday’s crash.
“With this situation, we have multiple fatalities, so there are very few people who know what happened,” Smith said. “With those people, information is conflicting and some are not cooperating.”
Smith said the person who called 911 to report the crash is among those who have been uncooperative.
The crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. when the 2002 Chevrolet went off a dirt and gravel road, down a levee and into the waterway, the CHP has said. Smith has said no one was inside the SUV when it was pulled from the water.
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