01-20-2011, 11:15 AM
bloody hell. zero vis and fast water.
search photos here:
http://www.kcra.com/slideshow/news/26539095/detail.html
Dive teams spent three hours searching the waters of the Delta-Mendota Canal early Wednesday night. The man-made waterway is just 17 feet deep, but visibility is zero on the bottom---it’s like searching for something with your eyes closed. As night fell the degree of difficulty multiplied for divers; and three separate searches turned up two just cement blocks and a stolen car. No signs of 4 year old Juliani Cardenas.
”We have every reason to believe this is going to end tragically, but we’re not giving up,” Sheriff Adam Christianson told reporters an eyewitness account and tire tracks suggest a car went into the canal. In fact, a witness describes a car that looks just like the one driven by accused kidnapping suspect Jose Rodriguez. ”It appears somebody made a sharp left , probably not a 90-degree, but a 20-25-degree left turn into the water,” says Sheriff Christianson.
The search took that dramatic turn about 1:30 when a farmworker told police he saw the car drive into the canal about 5 O’clock Tuesday night. That’s 45 minutes after little Juliani was ripped from his grandmothers’ arms. Amparo Cardenas says she always had a bad feeling about the 27 year old Rodriguez, ”He was looking pretty weird, like he was a little bit drunk or he was on drugs.”
Rodriguez, a violent criminal with a conviction for manslaughter, was caught by a surveillance camera buying a 40 ounce beer at a nearby convenience story about an hour earlier. But Police are also concerned about his mental state; he’d been missing work and and Juliani’s mother was ending their relationship. ”He’s snapped. Jose’s an alcoholic and he drives when he’s drinking and that would put my son in danger,” says Tabitha Cardenas.
But a mothers’ hope may have faded when investigators told her about that eyewitness account. ”But we’re not getting the number that you would normally see,” Sheriff Christianson says tips from the public aren’t coming in and the evidence is painting a dark picture. ”Even the suspect’s electronic signature has not been indentified.” FOX40’sJohn Lobertini followed up with this exchange, “ So, his credit cards, debit cards are not being used? Correct. Is there a cell phone that’s not giving out a signal anymore either? Correct.”
Investigators are convinced there’s another car in the canal. In fact, they say it could’ve passed through a series of filters and ended up on the other end of the canal. Divers are due back in the water by 9 a.m. Thursday.
search photos here:
http://www.kcra.com/slideshow/news/26539095/detail.html
Dive teams spent three hours searching the waters of the Delta-Mendota Canal early Wednesday night. The man-made waterway is just 17 feet deep, but visibility is zero on the bottom---it’s like searching for something with your eyes closed. As night fell the degree of difficulty multiplied for divers; and three separate searches turned up two just cement blocks and a stolen car. No signs of 4 year old Juliani Cardenas.
”We have every reason to believe this is going to end tragically, but we’re not giving up,” Sheriff Adam Christianson told reporters an eyewitness account and tire tracks suggest a car went into the canal. In fact, a witness describes a car that looks just like the one driven by accused kidnapping suspect Jose Rodriguez. ”It appears somebody made a sharp left , probably not a 90-degree, but a 20-25-degree left turn into the water,” says Sheriff Christianson.
The search took that dramatic turn about 1:30 when a farmworker told police he saw the car drive into the canal about 5 O’clock Tuesday night. That’s 45 minutes after little Juliani was ripped from his grandmothers’ arms. Amparo Cardenas says she always had a bad feeling about the 27 year old Rodriguez, ”He was looking pretty weird, like he was a little bit drunk or he was on drugs.”
Rodriguez, a violent criminal with a conviction for manslaughter, was caught by a surveillance camera buying a 40 ounce beer at a nearby convenience story about an hour earlier. But Police are also concerned about his mental state; he’d been missing work and and Juliani’s mother was ending their relationship. ”He’s snapped. Jose’s an alcoholic and he drives when he’s drinking and that would put my son in danger,” says Tabitha Cardenas.
But a mothers’ hope may have faded when investigators told her about that eyewitness account. ”But we’re not getting the number that you would normally see,” Sheriff Christianson says tips from the public aren’t coming in and the evidence is painting a dark picture. ”Even the suspect’s electronic signature has not been indentified.” FOX40’sJohn Lobertini followed up with this exchange, “ So, his credit cards, debit cards are not being used? Correct. Is there a cell phone that’s not giving out a signal anymore either? Correct.”
Investigators are convinced there’s another car in the canal. In fact, they say it could’ve passed through a series of filters and ended up on the other end of the canal. Divers are due back in the water by 9 a.m. Thursday.