Autopsy Shows Tuolumne County Murder Victim Was Shot
Sonora, Ca — A forensic autopsy was conducted today on the body that was located in the Deer Creek area yesterday afternoon.
“The results of the autopsy show that our victim had been shot,” says Lt. Dan Bressler with the Tuolumne County Sheriff´s Department. “We have yet to confirm the victim´s identity, although we have very good reason to believe it was Jon Flaherty.
Earlier this week, the Sheriff´s Department announced that Flaherty was a “person of interest.”
Late Sunday afternoon, 39 year old David Roy Stanton was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the incident. On Monday, his sister, Shawna Stanton was arrested for allegedly being an accessory to the crime.
The investigation began on Saturday night, when deputies responded to the area of Wards Ferry after receiving a report of a woman screaming and a person possibly being shot. Deputies arrived, found signs of a struggle, but found no victims or suspects.
On Sunday morning, deputies were told of a vehicle over the embankment in the Deer Creek area, south of the Wards Ferry Bridge. It turned out that this was a vehicle, once in possession of Flaherty, that the Sheriff´s Department had been looking for in connection with the possible shooting.
The vehicle was several hundred feet over the embankment in an area known as Murderer´s Gulch. Detectives searched the area, and found no one at or near the vehicle. The body, believed to be Flaherty, was found during a search on Tuesday.
Written by BJ Hansen
