All charges have been dropped against a young OR woman arrested in Northern California with a wanted OR man after a shooting and kidnapping rocked a small town, authorities said Wednesday. A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from OR who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured.
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Police in OR said they have located what is believed to be Sawyer’s body in Deschutes County, pending confirmation from the medical examiner. Formal identification of the remains from a medical examiner is expected in the next few days.
A man and a woman from OR are in custody after an elderly man was shot and critically wounded and a mother and her two sons were driven away at gunpoint in a carjacking. Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested.
Lara, 31, lives in Redmond and works at Central Oregon Community College as a part-time campus public safety officer.
Article is invalid or is no longer published.. “Information gathered by investigators during the day (Monday) has changed the type of investigation from a missing person to a homicide investigation”, said police.
Bend Police were headed to California Tuesday to pursue leads in the case of Kaylee Sawyer.
He said that this case was complicated because it spread over two states and involved several counties.
Ponce-Lara said she didn’t know where her husband put the body, but that he told her some of Sawyer’s belongings were inside a shed at their home. When police made the announcement that Lara was a person of interest in the case, they advised the public that he was to be treated as armed and risky. The shooting victim was taken to the hospital and is unstable and critical condition.
Five minutes later, a man reported that his auto had been stolen with three of his family members inside the vehicle. Police tell KOIN they believe Lara was behind the shooting.
The two suspects, Edwin Lara of Bend and Aundrea Maes of Salem, were booked into the Tehama County Jail. Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles said Lara forced one of the man’s sons to drive at gunpoint.
“The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his vehicle gone”, Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press. Her family reported she was last seen just before 1 a.m. Sunday.
About half an hour after that 911 call, the three people called police to say that they had been dropped off at a rest area on Interstate 5 and that they were unharmed.
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“We’re cooperating with the police as best we can”, Paradis said, declining to comment further.
