A week after an Indian American family of four went missing in Northern California, the body of a child, thought to of one of the two missing children, has been found.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said at a news conference the body was found on Friday morning, reported ABC News.
The maroon Honda Pilot that Sandeep Thottapilly (42), his wife, Soumya (38), and their two children, Siddhant (12) and Saachi (9), were traveling believed to have plunged into the Eel River in Mendocino County.
The Thottapillys, who lived in the Los Angeles area, were on a road trip from Portland, OR, to San Jose, CA.
RELATED: Los Angeles-based Indian American family reported missing (April 9, 2018)
The body of the child was found roughly 7 miles south of area where the crash happened.
Earlier the California Highway Patrol had recovered parts of the vehicle and some belongings of the family.
ABC said it is not clear what the belongings were but the sheriff’s office confirmed “the fact the vehicle that was seen going into the river was that of the Thottapilly family.”
An eyewitness told the network’s Bay Area affiliate ABC 7 that he saw the vehicle car flip over into the river.
RELATED: Investigators still looking for clues on the missing Indian American family from California (April 11, 2018)
“The car kept going straight and it was going off the pavement,” Pat Berkowitz was quoted as saying. “It’s on two wheels and I’m going by and it’s flipping over.”
He told the outlet that he tried to go down to the embankment, but could not. He said: “I’m yelling, ‘Hello, hello, anyone there? It’s horrific.”
Sandeep Thottapilly, who grew up in Surat, in the Gujarat state of India, was working at Union Bank as a vice president.
Soumya Thottapilly is from Kochi, Kerala.
The family lived in Santa Clarita, roughly 40 miles to the north of Los Angeles.
Earlier, Babu Subramaniam Thottapilly, father of Sandeep, had sought the the help of India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to locate his son and his family.