UPDATE: Farmworker's Body Pulled From Patterson Canal

PATTERSON (CBS13) - A young farmworker in Patterson drowned after he and the tractor he was driving went into the Delta-Mendota Canal on Monday.

The incident involving 19-year-old Ernesto Ordonez, happened at about 10:30 a.m. at Rodgers and Zacharias roads, according to farm workers. Ordonez was returning from picking peaches when for unknown reasons the tractor he was driving went over the edge into the canal.

Stanislaus County Sheriff's deputies decided not to search the canal with a dive team because the swiftly moving water is too dangerous. The company Ordonez was working for utilized a company that specializes in canal recovery and they found Ordonez's body about 8 p.m., according to the sheriff's department.

While dragging the bottom of the canal, the tractor, along with Ordonez's remains, were located. The area where the body and tractor were located was approximately one mile south of the where Ordonez originally entered the water, according to the sheriff's department.

After a careful recovery operation where personnel from the sheriff's dive team were utilized, Ordonez's remains were successfully recovered.

Ordonez wasn't wearing a seatbelt and never resurfaced after going into the water, according to witnesses.

"It's pretty hard, difficult to see, because he was like a brother to me," said cousin Francisco Gonzalez, who said he got Ordonez the job and that he'd been working the orchard for just two weeks.

Ordonez's family members were upset that law enforcement authorities initially did not search the canal, and several family members were out looking for any signs of Ordonez, according to CBS13's Andrea Menniti.

"We want to know if he's alive or not. We want to see if it was him," Gonzalez said.

Ordonez's mother and an aunt were also at the canal, hoping for a miracle.