On Sunday morning at 8:50 am, rangers with the California State Parks contacted the Folsom Police Department requesting assistance. Approximately two hours earlier rangers had located an unattended white Ford Ranger truck in a parking lot at 9900 Greenback Lane (Sudwerk Riverside Restaurant). A check of the license plate revealed the truck was a suspect vehicle in a Mariposa County homicide.
After speaking to witnesses in the area, officers believed the suspect vehicle’s driver may be in the adjacent Negro Bar State Park.
Suspecting the driver of the truck could be armed with a handgun; California State Parks Rangers cleared the recreation area, and along with officers from the Folsom Police Department and deputies from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, began an exhaustive search of the large recreation destination using police canines and the Folsom Police SWAT Team (Special Weapons and Tactics). At 12:00 pm SWAT team operators located a white male adult in an off trail wild land area of Negro Bar. Shortly afterwards paramedics from the Folsom Fire Department pronounced the man dead.
The Folsom Police Department is now investigating the unattended death of the man whose body was located. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office will determine the cause of death and the identity of the dead man.
At this point in the investigation, police say it is not appropriate to speculate whether the subject was the homicide suspect or by what means he died.
The Folsom Police Department will not comment on the Mariposa investigation.
