Juliani Cardenas Charity Ride

Authorities believe the victim is four-year-old Juliani Cardenas. But they're still waiting on DNA test results for confirmation.

Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputies are watching the home of Tabitha Cardenas around the clock as they continue to search for the man accused of kidnapping her son on January 18th.

Deputy Royjindhar Singh said, "We still have officers and deputies assigned to patrol the canal because our investigators still believe that Jose Rodriguez's body is somewhere in the canal. But just in case he got out of the canal, we still have a deputy assigned to the Cardenas house just in case he tried to come back to the house."

Tuesday morning, a water authority worker found the body of a little boy in the Delta Mendota Canal near Santa Nella, just about 30 miles downstream from where crews pulled out Jose Rodriguez's car last week. Investigators believe the victim is four-year-old Juliani Cardenas. And now they've determined how the child died.

Deputy Royjindhar Singh said, "The cause of death our coroner division determined is to be fresh water drowning so that has been done and we're still working with the department of justice to get DNA test results back for the positive identification."

A motorcycle ride that was planned to raise money to help search for Juliani has now been turned into a memorial ride.

Hooligans Motorcycle Club V.P., Steve Pacheco said, "For me being a father myself in this community, I can't imagine what they're going through so we're just trying to do just anything we can do to support the family and get her through this tough time."

Steve Pacheco says he met with Tabitha Cardenas after a vigil Tuesday night and got her blessing to go forward with the ride from Patterson to Modesto this weekend. "She told us to go with it, so we're still planning it, getting the word out as we speak now."

Anyone who wants to take part in the memorial ride should meet at the Patterson 76 gas station Saturday at noon. The ride ends at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Modesto. The restaurant is also planning to donate a portion of its food sales Saturday between 11am and 4pm to the Cardenas family. But you need to bring a coupon that can be found here.