Body found in Santa Ynez River identified as missing 14-year-old Alberto Corona Cabrera

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office identified the body found in the Santa Ynez River on Sunday to be Alberto Corona Cabrera, 14, of Lompoc.

Corona Cabrera had been reported missing since Jan. 27 when his parents last saw him before he left the house later that night and did not return.

The Lompoc Police Department said Cabrera Corona was with two known people in the early morning hours on Jan. 28, and that the three of them were in a vehicle driven by Cabrera Corona when it got stuck in mud west of Lompoc city limits.

While the three teens were walking back to the city, they ran into a disagreement on which way to go, so Cabrera Corona walked northbound, and the other two walked eastbound and made it back into town.

Police ran an extensive search in the following days but did not find the 14-year-old nor any crime scene, and there were no signs of foul play located.

On Sunday, Feb. 5, two kayakers called Santa Barbara County Fire saying they found the body of the missing teen in the Santa Ynez River.

County Fire responded to the area, which is where they found and recovered the 14-year-old's body from the riverbed near Santa Lucia Canyon Road, northwest of Lompoc.

The Sheriff's Office Coroner's Bureau has identified the decedent located in the Lompoc Riverbed yesterday as 14-yr-old Alberto Corona Cabrera from Lompoc. Coroner's Detectives successfully utilized @ANDErapidDNA to identify the decedent. Cause and manner of death are pending.

— PIO Raquel Zick (@SBSOPIO) February 6, 2023

As the County Sheriff's Office said, the cause and manner of his death are still pending.