Monday, June 25, 2012

Sacramento County, CA: Search in Folsom finds body, possibly suspect in wife's killing

A four-hour manhunt that closed a Folsom park Sunday ended with police finding a dead man believed to be a suspect in a homicide case in Mariposa County.
Police said they found the unidentified male near a trail in the Negro Bar section of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police didn't release any information about cause of death.

While officers said they weren't yet sure, the man was believed to be a suspect in the death of a Sacramento County woman found two days earlier in Mariposa County.

Mariposa sheriff's officials identified the woman as Tiffany J. Russell, 21. Her brother said she lived in Orangevale.
The bizarre case began unfolding Sunday morning. State park rangers found an empty Ford Ranger pickup truck in the parking lot of Sudwerk Riverside Restaurant, overlooking Negro Bar.
A check of the license plate tied the truck to the Mariposa homicide, police said. Witnesses told police the driver had headed for Negro Bar.
Believing he was armed, police cleared the area as a Folsom SWAT team and police dogs, assisted by Sacramento County sheriff's deputies, scoured the park for the man.
"They thought he had gone down to the river to kill himself," said restaurant general manager Tara Coleman.

The search kept the park closed for about four hours. The restaurant delayed its opening, Coleman said.
"We just watched the SWAT team search for him from our patio," she said.
Sgt. Jason Browning, spokesman for Folsom police, said the body was discovered around noon.
"He was basically down; it appeared he was deceased," Browning said.
Browning said a gun was found beneath the man's body.
Mariposa sheriff's deputies said Tiffany Russell's body was found Friday in a rural stretch of the Lake Don Pedro Subdivision, a vast residential area. They're treating her death as a homicide.
The location was about two miles from the boyhood home of Tiffany's husband, Sean Russell, according to Tiffany's brother Jason Bailey. Bailey said his family has been trying to contact Sean since learning of Tiffany's death.
He said Tiffany and Sean had lived in Orangevale for about five months. Tiffany was just about to start a new job in sales and "was really excited about it," Bailey said.
But he said his sister's marriage was difficult, and he and his family tried to persuade her to move back to her hometown of Merced "and start a new life." She refused.

No comments: