Police in Redmond, Oregon, which is about 120 miles southeast of Portland near Bend, said Lara is a person of interest in the disappearance of Kaylee Sawyer, 23, who was last seen just after midnight Sunday morning near Central Oregon Community College in Bend, according to Portland news station KOIN.
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Court documents released Tuesday show Ponce-Lara went into the station to talk to officers.
Police say 31-year-old Edwin Lara, a part-time Central Oregon Community College Campus Public Safety Officer, was arrested in Northern California on Tuesday morning in connection with Kaylee’s disappearance. He is also suspected of fleeing to California the day after the alleged murder and carrying out a string of crimes.
Bend Police Chief Jim Porter told a news conference that a body has been found that is believed to be Sawyer’s. The victim was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center in critical and unstable condition, Bowles said. Lara was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of Sawyer, of Bend, Ore. The relationship between Lara and Maes is not clear. However, an indictment must be filed before someone can be extradited from another state, Kim said. A grand jury has yet to decide whether there is sufficient probable cause to charge Lara with a crime, and no arraignment was scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon. Sawyer was originally reported missing, but law enforcement changed that to say it was a homicide investigation and Edwin Lara, 31, was considered armed and unsafe. Isabel Ponce-Lara is an officer in training for the Bend Police Department.
Edwin Lara, 31, a part-time officer at Central Oregon Community College, is accused of critically wounding a man at a Super 8 motel in Yreka and then moments later stealing a vehicle with a family still inside, Yreka police said.
Yreka Police said the suspects were located by law enforcement around 7:00 a.m. north of Redding, California. Police are now investigating the case as a homicide.
About 150 volunteers searched for Sawyer Tuesday around Deschutes County. Since there was no employment contract, there has been no need for employment action such as administrative leave, Paradis said. Some reports indicate that the suspect was driving a stolen vehicle at the time of his apprehension.
Prior to his position at Security Pros, Lara worked for Brightwood Corp., a mill in Madras, for about 10 years, according to the résumé he submitted to COCC in 2014.
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The family said it is not sure why Lara targeted Maes, but Miranda noticed some similarities between the two victims: “If you see the picture of the girl that was killed and then you see my great-niece, boy, they look a lot alike”. She was hired to work at the police department September 28, 2015, according to the city’s human resources director, Rob DuValle.
