Coroner: Boy found in canal drowned

Mom, grandma plan funeral; date not set

Autopsy results of a young boy presumed to be Juliani Cardenas reveal he drowned, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.

The body was discovered by a canal worker in Santa Nella on Tuesday morning, two weeks after Juliani was abducted from his home in Patterson by Jose Esteban Rodriguez, his mother's former boyfriend.

DNA results aren't expected until later this month, but the body matches 4-year-old Juliani's description and was clothed in the kind of black "Spider-Man" shoes and pajamas he was wearing Jan. 18, the day of the abduction.

The canal worker who found the body during a routine check of the Delta-Mendota Canal 31 miles south of where Rodriguez's car entered the water was "shaken" by the experience, according to Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Pete Lucero.

Lucero said the worker was assigned to secure the body while at the same time calling for help.

"(The worker) is shaken up, along with all those who had anything to do with the recovery effort," Lucero said Wednesday. "He has obviously suffered from this."

During the recovery and investigation Tuesday morning, McCabe Road near Santa Nella in Merced County was closed for several hours, blocking the only access to San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery. Seven funerals were postponed because of the closure, said cemetery director Ralph Bennett.

The Cardenas family spent much of Wednesday planning for Juliani's funeral, according to family friend and Patterson City Councilwoman Annette Smith.

A date for the funeral has not been set because the family is coordinating with the Stanislaus County coroner's office.

"They are strong women and they are going through with the processes that they need for the services," Smith said of Juliani's mother, Tabitha, and grandmother Amparo. "They are just trying to get through the day."