Road where missing Jacob VanZant found in river lacks guardrails: are safety upgrades needed?

STOCKTON — A Stockton man missing since February was found by a dive team in the San Joaquin River as mystery still surrounds his disappearance. 

Stockton resident Jacob VanZant, 24, was last seen on February 17 at a restaurant in downtown Lodi. When he didn’t come back to his home in Stockton after picking up dinner, his family reported him missing. 

The San Joaquin County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed to CBS13 Tuesday that VanZant’s body was pulled from the river at the Little Potato Slough on Saturday, April 15. It comes almost two months to the day that he vanished. 

VanZant’s car went into the water where Eight Mile Road dead ends into the river at Empire Tract Road. A memorial to Jacob sits at the waterside where he took his last breath. 

“We got a call from a diver who said they located a vehicle in the water,” said Nick Goucher, spokesperson for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office. 

The sheriff’s office says it came right to the scene Saturday. It was popular, cold-case-cracking YouTubers who found VanZant, and gave them the call. 

Adventures with Purpose, an Oregon-based specialized dive team, searches bodies of water for missing people nationwide. They found VanZant’s Honda Pilot in the river after friends and family members asked the team to get involved in the case. 

“We were able to identify there was a male individual that was with the vehicle,” said founder Jared Leisek in a Facebook live video sharing the news that he and Adventures with Purpose divers found VanZant on their second day of searching. 

Using sonar imaging, they spotted VanZant’s car submerged in the San Joaquin River just 150 feet from the shoreline and 18 feet underwater.

The Lodi Police Department, the agency leading the missing person investigation for VanZant, told CBS13 Tuesday that a few weeks ago they received information that VanZant’s cell phone was last pinged by a cell tower within a few miles of where his car was found by Adventures with Purpose. 

Lodi police turned that information at the time over to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction where the phone was pinged along the river. Neither agency has a specialized dive team. 

“When we have a cell phone ping, 95% of the time we are going to find them within this tight area,” said Leisek, who says Adventures with Purpose got in contact immediately with local law enforcement when the team started working on the case.      

But VanZant’s vehicle is not all they found in the river. By the end of their search, Adventures with Purpose identified 25 vehicles in the water in close proximity at Little Potato Slough; not knowing how they got there, or when. 

“Why are so many cars going in here? One, you have a straight, Eight Mile Road that dead ends,” said Leisek on Facebook Live. 

That same question is echoed by Stockton residents Justin Moua and Johnny Vang. They and other fishermen cast their lines frequently along the San Joaquin River close to where VanZant was found. 

“It’s kind of like you have to slow down with the road being so small and bumpy. It’s very nerve-racking when you’re getting so close to the water,” said Moua, fishing on the river Tuesday. 

Driving along Eight Mile Road at Empire Tract Road, it is easy to see how a car could quickly end up underwater. Those who fish there say a barrier is needed. 

“Some rail guards, especially on the ditches,” said Moua. 

VanZant’s family did not wish to speak on camera for this story, but his stepmother Mary told CBS13 over the phone they do not understand why no guardrails line this road to protect drivers. 

Their hope is that another life is not lost to the water. 

“No case should ever have to be solved the way this one was,” said Mary VanZant. 

Family remembers Jacob VanZant as a great, beautiful person who will be greatly missed. 

Lodi police are still investigating the circumstances of how he ended up in the water. 

CBS13 asked CHP Stockton how many crashes have happened at this location. Those answers were not available by deadline Tuesday, but a spokesperson said this is not a highly-trafficked road and it is not one they respond to often. 

No exact cause of death has been listed for VanZant. 

Adventures With Purpose was also involved in the 2022 search and eventual discovery of missing Truckee teen Kiely Rodni. Her vehicle was found in about 14 feet of water in Prosser Lake; dive team members found her body still in the vehicle, as was the case with VanZant.