Woman who fell into Fresno canal ID’d but remains missing as crews again pause search

Update, 6:30 p.m. Thursday: Fannie Chindapheth, 38, of Fresno, has been identified as the woman who fell into a canal Wednesday near Millbrook and McKinley avenues.

A search of the canal has been ongoing, but was suspended again Thursday to allow irrigation workers a chance to slow the flow of water. The Fresno Fire Department planned to resume its search Friday morning.

Chindapheth is described as standing 5 feet, 2 inches and weighing 100 pounds. Anyone with information on her is asked to contact fire dispatch at 559-621-4357.

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Here is the original story: Emergency crews spent approximately two hours looking for a woman who fell into a canal late Wednesday afternoon in east-central Fresno before calling off the search for the day.

It happened around 4 p.m. near Millbrook and McKinley avenues, where the Fresno Fire Department said a woman accidentally slipped and fell into the canal.

Initially, Fresno Fire said they had received information from witnesses that an altercation near a homeless encampment resulted in the woman either getting pushed or falling into the canal. But Fresno Fire Department later ruled out that no pushing occurred.

Regardless how she entered the water, the growing concern was that crews hadn’t yet found any clue of her after an hour of searching.

“Right now, this is tough,” Fresno Fire public information officer Shane Brown said. “We’re an hour into this. There’s a very small window for a rescue with cold-water drownings before we shift to body recovery versus a rescue.”

By about 5:45 p.m., crews shifted their efforts from a rescue mission to body recover efforts.

Roughly 30 minutes later, the search was called off for the day.

“Our dive team spent two solid hours walking along the bottom of the areas, searching every square inch and trying to see we could locate her,” Brown said. “At this point, we’re beyond the capabilities of being able to rescue anybody.”

Brown said Fresno County’s protocol predetermines that crews have approximately one hour to find the possible drowning victim in cold water before efforts are switched from rescue to recovery.

“Our protocol allows for one hour submergence time when we can still viably save that person .... and they can potentially have a positive outcome,” Brown said. “At this time ... the hope now is that she was able to get out on her own.

“There are access ladders on the sides of the canal, and that she was able to self-extricate herself down stream.”

The current of the water in the canal also made the search more challenging since “there’s no set direction that a body would travel and there’s so many obstacles under the water that are unknown,” Brown said.

While Fresno Fire conducted a dive operation to search for her, Fresno Police and American Ambulance provided assistance from the surface.

In addition, emergency crews were trying to get aerial assistance with a helicopter to possibly spot the woman from above.

Brown said there were reports that someone tried to jump in to help the woman when she initially fell in the canal, but that person lost sight of her quickly.

Brown also clarified that initial reports that the women was involved in an altercation and was pushed into the canal turned out to not be credible information.

“It sounds like it was an accident, that she did slip and fall into the canal,” Brown said. “She is known by the individuals who live alongside the canal to traverse this area.

“The information we got was she was told to stay away, she couldn’t swim, then very quickly after that, she had fallen in.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 5:57 PM.