Floating Body
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Police: Body floating in canal thought to be California kidnapper
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 13, 2011 5:40 a.m. EST
Jose Esteban Rodriguez allegedly snatched 4-year-old Juliani Cardenas from his grandmother's arms on January 18.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
· NEW: The kidnapped boy's mother says she's "relieved that all this is over"
· NEW: She tells Rodriguez's mother that she feels her pain, having lost a son herself
· A water authority worker alerts police after finding a floating body in the Delta-Mendota Canal
· Police believe the body is that of Jose Rodriguez, accused of kidnapping and killing his ex-girlfriend's son
(CNN) -- A floating body was found Saturday that authorities believe to be the man who kidnapped his ex-girlfriend's 4-year-old son and drove with him into a canal.
A California water authority employee saw the body, believed to be that of Jose Esteban Rodriguez, at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. It was discovered in a part of the 117-mile Delta-Mendota Canal in the northern California city of Patterson, according to a press release from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.
The employee alerted Stanislaus County Sheriff's detectives, who went to the scene along with members of the department's dive team and the West Stanislaus-Patterson Fire Department.
Authorities determined the body was that of an adult Hispanic male with clothing and a physical make-up matching that of Rodriguez. Authorities will now employ scientific measures, such as DNA tests and dental records, and examine other evidence to definitively identify the body.The discovery comes 11 days after authorities found the body of young Juliani Cardenas, the boy who Rodriguez allegedly swiped from his grandmother's arms on January 18.
Tabitha Cardenas, the boy's mother, who broke up with Rodriguez five months earlier, told CNN affiliate KCRA that she was "relieved that all this is over." She also expressed sympathy for Rodriguez's mother, now that his body has apparently been found.
"I feel her pain, because I know what it's like to lose a son," Cardenas said. "She
