Body of last missing family member found in California river

LEGGETT (AP) — Searchers on Monday found the body of a 12-year-old boy in a Northern California river — the last of four family members who perished when their sport utility vehicle plunged into the rain-swollen torrent.

The body of Siddhant Thottapilly was found at about 4 p.m. submerged in the Eel River about 6 miles downstream from where the family car reportedly crashed, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Gregory L. Van Patten said in a statement.

The body was found a day after the car with Siddhant’s father and younger sister inside were pulled from the river sediment.

A search team on a boat smelled gasoline about a half-mile downstream from where the crash was reported and found the Honda Pilot underwater, authorities said.

Inside were the bodies of Sandeep Thottapilly, 41, and 9-year-old Saachi Thottapilly.

The boy’s mother, Soumya Thottapilly, 38, was found Friday miles from the crash site in an area previously covered with water from the storm-swollen river.

The Thottapillys were traveling from Portland, Oregon, to their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita when they were reported missing April 8 after failing to show up for a visit with relatives in San Jose.

The crash site is about 200 miles northwest of San Jose.

The driver apparently had pulled off the road during a powerful storm but the SUV went over the edge of an embankment into the flooded river, sheriff’s officials have said.