Searchers pulled a submerged Jeep from the St. Joseph River in Niles, Michigan, on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, and found two bodies inside believed to be those of two young mothers from South Bend, Indiana, who vanished after a night out with friends, police said.
Vanessa Bautista, 24, and Alexa Navarro, 23, had been missing since the early morning hours of Sunday, September 13. Niles police said the two bodies had not yet been positively identified, but that their clothing matched the descriptions of Bautista and Navarro.
“I can confirm that there are two females in the vehicle, and by the clothing description we do believe it’s the women involved in this case,” Niles City Police Chief James Millin said.
What sent the Jeep into the water remains unresolved.
“How this happened, what exactly happened, is still under investigation,” Millin said.
A Search That Ended in the River
The discovery came roughly eight hours into Tuesday’s search, an operation that pulled in multiple local police agencies along with K-9 units and drones. Dozens of people turned out that day for a third day of searching, many of them visibly shaken and some in tears.
Word that the vehicle had turned up came first from relatives, who identified it as the gray 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee the two women had last been seen driving. A couple of hours later, police confirmed that a Jeep had been found in the river with two women inside. Crews worked late that afternoon to raise the vehicle and bring it ashore, where Millin said the investigation would carry on.
Police said they believe the vehicle “went over an embankment and into the river.” Millin said it is unclear how the women died, and authorities said it is not clear at this time whether any foul play was involved.
A missing persons flyer circulated during the search described the vehicle as a gray 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the cover missing from a back tire and rust where the cover would have been, and said the two women were last seen in the Niles and South Bend area.
The Last Hours Before They Vanished
Relatives said the two women went out on Saturday night, September 12, to a club with Navarro’s cousin and two other friends. Navarro dropped her cousin off at home around 3:30 a.m., relatives said, and she and Bautista then went to get something to eat.
That was the last time family members heard from either woman. Relatives said Navarro’s phone last pinged in Niles, and that a camera across the street from the home of her son’s father’s girlfriend recorded her around 4:30 a.m.
Family members reported the two missing the next morning. South Bend police said the women were last seen in Elkhart, Indiana.
Three Departments, One Case
Police departments in South Bend, Elkhart and Niles have said they are working together on the investigation. Relatives of the two women have complained that no one has told them which department is in charge.
The disappearance had galvanized friends, relatives and neighbors in South Bend, where both women lived, drawing people into a search. Organizers turned a protest scheduled for Tuesday evening into a prayer vigil at Muessel Grove Park off Wilber Street.
What Investigators Said Comes Next
Millin said officers had already been in contact with the family and that locating the two women does not bring the case to an end. Investigators, he said, will keep working to establish exactly why it happened.
Recovering the vehicle from the St. Joseph River turned a missing persons search into a death investigation in a matter of hours. Police have described the discovery in careful terms throughout, confirming what could be confirmed at the scene — two women inside a submerged Jeep, wearing clothing that matched the descriptions on the missing persons flyer — while stopping short of a formal identification.
As of Tuesday, September 15, the identifications had not been made official, the manner of the two deaths had not been determined, and investigators had not said whether foul play played any role. For the families who spent three days searching, the questions that remain are the ones police say the next phase of the investigation is meant to answer.