Turlock Irrigation District employees discovered what appeared to be human remains in the Lower Lateral 3 Canal near Central Avenue and Keyes Road in Ceres around noon, and the person's identity has not yet been confirmed. Responding officers later confirmed the remains were in fact human, but no further details about who the victim was have been released.
According to fox40.com, irrigation district workers contacted law enforcement around 12 p.m. after spotting what they believed were human remains in the canal. Officers responded to the scene near Central Avenue and Keyes Road and confirmed the remains were human, though the person's identity has not been established. The Ceres Police Department's investigation, reported by CBS Sacramento, is ongoing, and officials have said the dead person's age and gender were not available at the time, nor was it known whether the death is considered suspicious.
Officials said they plan to perform further testing in the coming days in an effort to identify the person recovered from the water, per the CBS Sacramento report. They also asked that anyone with relevant information about the discovery contact Ceres police. Authorities have indicated additional information will be released as it becomes available and appropriate, the station's report notes.
A Familiar Scene Along Stanislaus County Waterways
This is not the first time a body has turned up in a Ceres-area canal. In June, 36-year-old Luis Anguiano Calzado was found submerged in a canal near Moore Road and pronounced dead at the scene, according to modbee.com. The Stanislaus County Coroner's Office later confirmed his identity, and his cause of death was listed as undetermined pending toxicology testing.
In that earlier case, the Modesto Bee reported that Ceres Fire Department personnel, American Medical Response and Ceres Police were dispatched to the 3000 block of Moore Road just after 6 p.m. following reports of a possible drowning. Investigators said at the time there was no evidence or witness statement indicating how Anguiano Calzado entered the canal, and the case remained under investigation with no further details released about the circumstances or whether foul play was suspected.
It remains unclear whether Saturday's discovery in the Lower Lateral 3 Canal is connected in any way to the earlier case, and nothing in the current investigation has tied the two incidents together. For now, Ceres police say only that the identity of the person found near Central Avenue and Keyes Road has not been confirmed, and that testing to establish who they were is expected in the coming days.
