Authorities have confirmed the identity of a body that washed ashore in San Diego County last week as a 10-year-old girl who was reported missing after a Panga boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast.
Mahi Brijeshkumar Patel was one of four passengers who died after their boat capsized on May 5, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
She had turned 10 just two days before the accident. Her body washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach on May 21.
Her 14-year-old brother, Prince Brijeshkumar Patel, also died in the incident. His death was ruled an accidental drowning. The siblings’ parents were both rescued but the father remains in a coma, officials said. The family is from India.
The family was aboard the Pangaboat, a small boat with an outboard motor, along with several other people when it capsized at Del Mar Beach.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a call around 6:30 a.m. that a small panga-style boat with an estimated 16 people on board had overturned just north of Torrey Pines State Beach, said Hunter Schnabel, a Coast Guard public affairs officer.
The third drowning victim was identified as Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 18. The fourth victim has not yet been identified. Authorities have not confirmed a final total of how many people were aboard the boat.
Authorities began making arrests soon after the capsized boat was reported.
Two people — Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, both Mexican nationals — were arrested on the beach on suspicion of smuggling the passengers on the boat, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A few hours later in Chula Vista, just 10 miles from the Mexican border, Border Patrol agents spotted a car, which had been seen earlier near the accident scene, and arrested three of its passengers, but the driver got away.
Agents continued their investigation and eventually stopped two other vehicles involved in the smuggling incident and discovered eight of the nine missing migrants, according to prosecutors.
The drivers of the vehicles — Melissa Jenelle Cota, 33; Gustavo Lara, 32; and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31 — were arrested and charged with the transportation of undocumented immigrants, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
