murder

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In search of something positive to do while staying at home during the pandemic, South Lake Tahoe parent Gantt Miller and his daughter Mackenzie started brainstorming. They couldn't sew, so making masks were out of the question. What could they do?

They could tell a story.

The nine-year-old Mackenzie and her dad, who wrote the book under a pen name, M.C. Behm, started to explore what messages they could convey between the front and back covers.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - He was the star running back of Benicia High School before graduating in 2015. He led the Panthers with 901 rushing yards and 15 total touchdowns his senior year and was named their Most Valuable Offensive Player.

Less than one year later he was in South Lake Tahoe with a group of men accused of fatally shooting Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. over a drug deal at the Beverly Lodge.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - There will be some very big shoes to fill when finding a replacement for retiring El Dorado County Undersheriff Randy Peshon. On Tuesday, June 30, Peshon will be putting his badge on for the very last time. For 43 years he's been in some level of law enforcement, the last 33 years in El Dorado County.

During his career in El Dorado County, Peshon has been at the forefront of change from implementing a change in culture at the jail in South Lake Tahoe to getting the new Public Safety Facility built under budget and ahead of schedule.

It’s difficult to find the right words. Even now, a week after the on-camera murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police officers, and all of the fallout felt nationwide, I’m still trying to understand the world, how to respond as a community leader, and how to explain it to my kids. All of the frustration, sadness, and outrage — it all seems so familiar since we’ve all been witness to these acts before, all seen and read and heard about cases of unarmed black people and other people of color killed in police custody when it was clearly avoidable.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A four-week on-line acting workshop will be starting on May 11, 2020. Take 2 Performers Studio and Tahoe Production House have teamed up to bring this workshop to youth with a focus on television and film acting.

This is an interactive class where students will develop a solid foundation and acting techniques including improv, auditioning skills for film and television, and on-camera experience with instructors Justine Reyes and Holly Lorge.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A jury of seven men and five women took just 80 minutes on Tuesday to find Dion Jermaine Vacarro guilty of murdering Dennis "Spike" Wright, Jr. in South Lake Tahoe on January 30, 2016.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In a surprise move on Thursday during the murder trial of Dion Jermaine Vacarro in South Lake Tahoe, the man who had previously pleaded guilty in the same case in exchange for a lighter sentence changed his mind.

A four-hour interview of homicide suspect Sean Purdy in Reno Friday night has led to the discovery of the body of his father, 52-year-old Lance Purdy of Pine Grove, Calif.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A we say goodbye to 2019, 2020 is on the horizon with hopes, dreams and a list of wishes for the new year.

Instead of taking a look back at 2019 let's take a look forward to 2020 in South Lake Tahoe. What does this year have in store for us?

As soon as word spread that El Dorado County Deputy Brian Ishmael was shot and killed in the line of duty on October 23, multiple federal agencies were mobilized and went to work to not only find out who was directly responsible for the death, but also to uncover those in charge of the illegal marijuana grows at the forefront of the case.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - Three men have been arrested in connection with the death of El Dorado County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Ishmael.

Early Wednesday, October 23, Deputy Ishmael responded to a call of theft from a marijuana garden behind a residence on Sand Ridge Road in Somerset, southeast of Placerville. He had a ride-along passenger at the time, an off-duty San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputy.

Local author, JoAnn Conner, will discuss the importance of doing research when writing a mystery novel, and how this pertains to her own work. 'Heartwood' is historical fiction with a mystery woven in the story, while 'The Mountain' is a murder mystery revolving around the theft of Native American artifacts. The most challenging for Conner was launching her first series, featuring veteran Detective Frank Riley. 'Death Song' is a murder mystery that involved research on different forms of poisons, and how they are used. Book sale and signing to follow.

Location

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - On Thursday, July 25 the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) responded to the Johnson Lane area of Minden at 10:15 p.m. after being dispatched to a reported shooting. A man had allegedly shot a firearm at his roommates. No one was injured in the shooting and the roommates were able to get to safety.

The El Dorado County (EDC) District Attorney's Office recently helped with a state-wide investigation focused on offenders operating a criminal enterprise from both inside and outside state prisons.

Sixteen members and associates of a prison-based gang have been charged after a long-running investigation into drug trafficking and murders inside and outside of California’s prisons.

The EDC DA office's investigative division has the kind of highly trained and experienced detectives that are often called in to help with operations of this magnitude.

On July 17, 1982, the body of a woman was found off of a hiking trail in the Sheep's Flat area near Mt. Rose just a few miles above Incline Village, was found. There was no identification or jewelry on the victim and investigators could tell by her clothing she may have been headed to Lake Tahoe when she was murdered.

And there was no suspect.

For over three decades, both her and her killer's identity have been unknown but with new DNA technologies, hard work by a team of law enforcement investigators and genealogists, the case has been solved.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - One could feel the air let out of a South Lake Tahoe courtroom as visiting Judge Gary Mullen read his decision to the five defendants, their five lawyers and family members in attendance, one that tossed out their request to drop murder charges against all of the suspects in the robbery and murder in 2016 of Dennis Wright.

Judge Mullen declared California Senate Bill 1437 unconstitutional. The bill was signed by then-California Governor Jerry Brown in September 2018 and changed the liability for accomplices to felony murder.

UPDATE 8:30AM 4/27/19: An observant officer from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) was on patrol near the Heavenly Village at approximately 9:45 p.m. Friday night when he saw a car listed on a Bay Area police "Be On The Lookout" report go through an intersection. The report said the driver was a suspect in two homicides, one in each Oakland and San Francisco.

He followed the vehicle and attempted to pull it over with the assistance of another officer, but the driver took off and a pursuit began.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A 45-year-old South Lake Tahoe man has been arrested after allegedly stabbing an employee of Jim Bagan Toyota and carjacking a white Dodge Durango he'd taken out for a test drive.

NORTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - More details have emerged from Saturday's deadly shooting in Tahoe City where Octavio Villa-Villanueva, 33, of Sparks, Nevada was killed and another man shot inside a car parked at the Boatworks Mall.

The suspect in the shooting, 52-year-old Salvador Murillo-Cabrera of Reno, was found deceased in a bathroom at St. Peter Canisius Catholic Church in the Sun Valley area of Reno on Sunday, apparently committing suicide during church services.

A man with ties to South Lake Tahoe has been arrested in connection with the murder of 60-year-old Helen McKinney.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office (EDSO) announced Sunday that 26-year-old Tanner Michael Seals is in the Adams County Jail in Washington State after being arrested on an out-of-state warrant on January 31. He was interviewed by EDSO detectives and will be extradited to El Dorado County and charged with murder.

A probable cause arrest report released Friday by the Carson City Sheriff's Office on 19-year-old murder suspect Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman contains a confession under Miranda.

According to the arrest report, Guzman told investigators that firearms stolen from the house of Jerry and Sherri David, the elderly South Reno couple found murdered in their home, were buried in the area of Sedge Road in East Carson City.

UPDATE 1/23/19 - The suspect in the quadruple murder in Northern Nevada was in the country illegally from El Salvador when he was arrested on January 19, 2019. Tips received by law enforcement led them to Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, and as they built a murder case they started to tail him. Immigration officials were unaware of Martinez-Guzman until those tips came in.

Officials did not want to lose the suspect and arrested him on immigration charges as the investigation continued and the murder case developed.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The woman who died in Sunday's homicide on Carson Avenue in South Lake Tahoe has been identified as 65-year-old local resident Valorie Turley.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A 71-year-old local man has been arrested for the murder of his 65-year-old female roommate.

James Byron Cleveland was arrested by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) after they responded to a Carson Avenue residence on a call of an injured woman on Sunday, January 13, 2019.