Merced County reports its deadliest year in recent memory, 35 homicides in 2022

Statistics from the Merced County Sheriff Coroner’s Office show the county reported 35 homicides in 2022 — making it the deadliest year locally of the past five years.

Additionally, 2022 was a particularly violent year for crimes against children. Of the homicides reported during the year, six of the victims were children under the age of 9.

Last year’s homicide count is the second consecutive year Merced County exceeded 30 reported homicides in the past five years. Merced County reported 32 homicides in 2021.

In 2020, Merced County recorded a total of 28 homicides, a substantial increase from the totals recorded for 2019 and 2018 which both saw 15 reported homicides.

According to Coroner’s Office data, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office investigated 22 homicide cases while the Merced Police Department handled five in 2022.

Four homicide cases were handled by Atwater Police Department, Livingston Police Department handled three and Los Banos Police Department handled one homicide case.

According to Deputy Alexandra Britton, one of the Merced County Sheriff’s Office homicide cases was the Aug. 4, 2022 death of a 35-year-old man who died of injuries sustained in March 2007 shooting that occurred in Delhi.

Here are some of the high profile Merced County homicides that made national news in 2022. All of these cases resulted in arrests, and the cases are pending in Merced County Superior Court.

Mother accused of killing three children

The first high profile incident that made headlines in 2022 was the January deaths of three children in Le Grand.

Merced County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a Le Grand apartment complex on Jan. 12 where they found Anna Ortiz Lara, 8, Matteo Ortiz Lara, 5, and Alexa Ortiz Lara, 3, dead.

Deputies arrested the children’s mother Patricia Ortiz, 31. She is charged with three counts of murder and enhancements.

Discovery of 8-year-old’s body prompts manhunt

Another homicide which shocked the Merced community in 2022 was the death of 8-year-old Sophia Mason.

On March 11, Sophia’s body was found inside a bath tub at the north Merced home of Dhante Jackson, 34, on Barclay Way.

The child was found by Merced police, who were acting on a tip from the Hayward police.

The tip came about after Hayward police had questioned Sophia’s mother Samantha Johnson about the child’s disappearance.

According to court documents, Sophia had been the victim of long-term abuse. Police said by the time they located her body, she had been dead for about a month.

A manhunt for Jackson lasted for several months, until he was eventually arrested in the Bay Area in September.

Both Jackson and Johnson are charged with murder and three other defendants were charged as accessories.

Local family kidnapped, massacred

In a crime that made international headlines, an 8-month old baby, her parents and her uncle were kidnapped and later found dead.

On Oct. 3, Aroohi Dheri, parents Jalseen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36, and her uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were taken from the family’s business in Merced.

Days later, their bodies were found by a farmworker in an area near Indiana and Hutchins roads, northeast of Dos Palos.

Merced County Sheriff’s detectives obtained video surveillance of the abductions and identified Jesus Manuel Salgado, 48, as a suspect.

He was arrested Oct. 4 and deputies said he attempted to take his own life just prior. He’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances.

Jesus Salgado’s brother Alberto Salgado was also arrested and faces charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, accessory after the fact and arson of property.

9-month old baby shot, killed in broad daylight

In November 9-month-old Darius King Grigsby was shot and killed in Merced as he was being pushed in a stroller by his mother, who was accompanied by a male.

Merced police said a vehicle pulled up next to them and an occupant opened fire. Grigsby was struck by at least one bullet and died at the scene.

Later that month, police arrested Daevon Motshwane, 18. from Merced, and a 17-year-old juvenile

Police believe Motshwane was the shooter, who had intended to shoot the male who accompanied the baby’s mother, while the juvenile was the driver.

Motshwane faces first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges, according to jail records.

Authorities said Motshwane is a known gang member.