Crime & Safety

Missing Soquel Woman Found Dead in Ben Lomond, Sheriff's Office Confirms

Guadalupe Cortez was last seen swimming in the San Lorenzo River on Sunday with two men. Her body was found Monday.

Searchers on Monday found the body of a woman missing since Sunday after she went swimming with two men in the San Lorenzo River in Ben Lomond, a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said.

Members of a sheriff's search and rescue team found the body of Guadalupe Cortez, 26, of Soquel, lying in the river at about 3:30 p.m. Monday, spokeswoman Deputy April Skalland said.

Deputies had suspected the woman was Cortez; her identity was confirmed Tuesday morning.

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No new details about how she died have been released and investigators have not said if foul play was involved.

Cortez's body was located about an eighth-mile from where one or both of the men last saw her swimming in the river at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Skalland said.

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The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported the temperature of the water was about 45 degrees and the air temperature was 62 on Saturday.

One of the two men, neither of whom has been identified, reported her missing at 9 a.m. the following morning, Skalland said.

Skalland declined to comment on why it took nearly a day for the man to inform deputies of Cortez's disappearance, saying that the circumstances of her death are still under investigation.

Cortez had left her green 1996 Jeep on Sunday morning in the parking lot of Highlands Park, just east of Highway 9 in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area in northern Santa Cruz County, deputies said.

She then joined the two men for a swim in the river, which runs along the park's eastern border, deputies said.

About 15 deputies began searching the area where Cortez was seen Monday morning, but did not find her and expanded the search area.

Search and rescue deputies with search dogs linked up with a water team to look for Cortez along the river, Skalland said.

The Santa Cruz County coroner's office is set to perform an examination of Cortez's body to determine the cause of death, Skalland said.

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