The other victims were identified as Isaac Tapia, 16, Adan Martinez, 22, and Elizar Cruz, 19, all of Lodi, said Elizabeth Fair, deputy coroner in Stanislaus County. Perez and Eulalia Garcia died from drowning; autopsies are pending on the others, she said.
Although family members say that one male victim is still missing, there is no active search. The reason, Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputy Tom Letras said, is the sheer size of the task.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, July 18, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
Farmworkers' fatal crash: In Thursday's California section, a photo caption accompanying an article about farmworkers killed in a car crash near Modesto misspelled Isaias Garcia's first name as Isais. Additionally, the caption identified him as the brother of Ivonne Garcia. He is her uncle.
"The canal is so large, the [body] could be anywhere from five feet away from the vehicle, stuck on debris under the water," he said, "or 50 miles away."
A day after the Garcia family watched divers search the canal's murky water, several siblings could not believe that their sisters were gone.
They crowded around their mother in the afternoon sun, urging her to ask God to bring her peace.
"I don't believe it," said sister Teresa Garcia, 30. "This is all a dream."
The last time they had been together was the Fourth of July weekend, when they gathered at their mother's house to eat and joke. Adriana lived there, having promised her older sisters she'd never marry, so she could care for their mother in her old age.
One by one over the last 20 years, the siblings had helped each other immigrate from Puebla, Mexico, to the Central Valley, where they worked as a family in the lush fields, picking and sorting pears and peaches.
Eulalia, the oldest, would come home after a long day in the heat to cook for her three children and urge them to get an education. Her husband, Alejandro Santiago Garcia, walked along the rim of the canal Wednesday, remembering the young woman he fell in love with in Mexico.
"I don't know what happens now," the 34-year-old said. Their oldest daughter, Ivonne, 17, cried on her boyfriend's shoulder, begging aloud for her mother to return.
Family members said they wanted to mark the crash site with a memorial of candles and flowers.
But once they saw Adriana's body there, returning to the scene proved much too difficult.
"We can't go there right now," said sister Amalia, 24.
"It's all too painful."
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esmeralda.bermudez@ latimes.com
maria.laganga@latimes.com
Times staff writer Joanna Lin contributed to this report.
