Missing California mom has an active warrant, brother says she’s ‘not missing by choice’

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Whisper Owen, the Elk Grove mother who was reported missing out of Fresno with her eight-month-old daughter, has an active warrant out for her arrest.

The warrant is in connection with a 2020 felony child abuse case. The case is not connected with her missing eight-month-old daughter, Sandra McCarty.

Despite the warrant, her brother Richard Owen says he does not believe she is on the run.

“She is not on the run, and she has no reason to run. She is a great mom that loves her children and has never intentionally harmed them nor allowed them to be harmed,” he said. “Please don’t judge what you don’t know. They are not missing by choice; something has happened to my family.”

Owen and Sandra have not been seen since July 15, a day they spent mostly in Fresno visiting with family. Before leaving town, Owen said they were headed back home to Elk Grove.

A timeline of her travels shows she was indeed headed that way – but slightly off the beaten path.

After leaving her mother’s home around 5 p.m., traffic footage captured her SUV about an hour’s drive away near Shaffer and Bellevue roads in Atwater, around 8 p.m.

The SUV was then confirmed traveling through Waterford around 9 p.m. before making its way to Highway 120, east of Escalon. While these two towns are indeed on the way to Elk Grove, this route would have added about half an hour to her trip.

In a Friday night social post, Richard said she was likely taking back roads to avoid being pulled over for her missing headlight. While she may have been avoiding a fix-it ticket, she also may have been avoiding the active warrant out for her arrest.

The warrant was issued on Oct. 3, 2023, after she failed to complete a work project. The project was agreed upon following her no-contest plea in 2021 regarding a 2020 child abuse case.

While she did not complete the project, Richard says she went to court, was sentenced, and even turned herself in at one point, but was not able to be kept in custody because of her medical needs.

“People are trying to make her out to be some kind of monster that hurts her children now that we shared about her warrant, and that’s not my sister,” her brother, Richard Owen, wrote in a message to YourCentralValley.com.

Police are still treating this as a missing person case. Anyone who has seen Owen and Sandra, or their SUV, is asked to call 559-621-7000.

Owen is 5 feet 6 inches tall, 145 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair; she was last seen wearing a white tank top and ripped blue jeans. Sandra is 1 foot 10 inches tall, 17 pounds, with green eyes and brown hair; she was last seen wearing a pink onesie.

They were last seen in a silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer with CA license plate 9LKH008 and a damaged driver’s side headlight.