Stanislaus deputies investigate 2 deaths, shooting injury

Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday investigated a homicide, a suspicious death and a shooting that injured a teenage girl, all in different areas of the county.

Late Sunday afternoon, deputies were dispatched to the 4600 block of Wallasey Way in Salida, where a resident found a body in the back of a U-Haul truck parked on the street near Sisk Elementary School.

Sgt. Anthony Bejaran would not say who found the body or his or her connection is to the U-Haul but said that person is not a suspect in the death, which is being treated as a homicide.

The victim, described only as a black man, was covered with a sheet or blanket and surrounded by furniture and clothes inside the U-Haul. His cause of death has not been determined, and Bejaran said it did not appear that the body had been there long.

Detectives worked through the night and are trying to determine a motive and identify a suspect.

Earlier in the day Sunday, detectives were at the scene of a suspicious death west of Turlock.

A bicyclist was riding on Tuolumne Road between Mitchell and Moffett roads when she saw the body of an elderly woman on the side of the road, Bejaran said. The bicyclist rode home and called 911 about 10:10 a.m.

The 84-year-old woman was lying on her side on the south side of a road near an old dairy. A large yellow flashlight lay near her in the street, its battery and bulb detached and sitting next to it.

Bejaran said the woman died some time before 9 a.m. Sunday.

“We won’t know until the autopsy is done whether she was a victim of a hit-and-run or she potentially died of natural causes,” he said.

The woman, who has not been identified, had minor injuries to her hands and face.

About 3:15 p.m., 30 minutes before the body was discovered in Salida, deputies were dispatched to the western part of the county, where a 15-year-old girl had been shot.

The girl was on a property off Marshall Road, just west of the San Joaquin River, when she was struck in the back.

Deputies are investigating the possibility that the bullet came from a shooting range on the other side of the river.

“It doesn’t look like that incident is intentional,” Bejaran said. “The Turlock Sportsman’s Club is directly across from where she was, so we at this point are investigating who was at the Sportsman’s Club and what they had going on there.”

The girl was taken by ambulance to a local hospital; her condition was not available Sunday night.

This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Stanislaus deputies investigate 2 deaths, shooting injury."