FRESNO, CA (KMJ) A double recovery effort to pull possibly two cars from the Kings River, is planned this week.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office believes the first car contains the bodies of two missing Thai exchange students, who were in the vehicle that plummeted 500 feet before landing on a rock in the river.
There’s now evidence that another vehicle could have plunged into the river, containing a couple missing from San Diego; 31 year-old Yinan Wang and his wife 30 yar-old Jie Song (below).
This weekend, the Sheriff’s Office announced they may have found the couple’s white Ford Focus.
The couple was last seen at Crystal Caves in Sequoia National Park on August sixth, and they were due back in San Diego on August ninth.
Sheriff’s Spokesperson Tony Botti says the two may have also driven off the same section of Highway 180, near Convict Flat.
“We had found wreckage of that vehicle along with the plate, up on the cliff, exactly the same area where the Thai couple had gone off a couple weeks previously.” – Sheriff’s Spokesperson Tony Botti.
A white object was spotted just downstream from the other car in the river.
Siamtown US, a Thai newspaper, gave the Sheriff’s Office permission to distribute photos of the Thai exchange students, 24 year-old Thiwadee Saengsuriyarit (above left) and 28 year-old Pakkapol Chairattanasongporn (above right).
Botti says the cannot yet confirm the identities of the bodies in the river and will not be able to do so until the Coroner’s Office has possession of them and completes autopsies.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team (SAR) and the CHP is hoping there is a window this week to be able to make the complicated recovery in the turbulent Kings River.
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern
