Shooting Victim Identified

Authorities have just released the name of the woman shot to death Sunday afternoon near Columbia.

Tuolumne County Sheriff´s Lt. John Steely says the victim has been positively identified as 21 year-old Jennifer Lynn Coons.

Coons died around 2:40 p.m. Sunday at Tuolumne General Hospital from gunshot wound to the chest.

The ID was made by comparing fingerprints of the victim with prints on file at the sheriff´s Department.

Steely says no arrests have been made. According to an article in a Modesto newspaper, Jerry Coey, the Sonora man who drove Coons to the hospital, was later arrested, but is not a suspect in the shooting.

Coey, 30, was wanted for allegedly violating terms of his parole from prison. He was being held at the county jail without bail — which is customary for alleged parole violations.

Steely say Coey is just a witness to the shooting and has been very cooperative with investigators.

Coons´ autopsy is scheduled for today.

This is the fifth homicide in Tuolumne County this year. The other four were the people murdered by the Russian kidnapping ring and dumped in New Melones Reservoir.