NEWMAN (CBS13) – Authorities have arrested two people in Stanislaus County in connection with the murder of a California man in a hotel in Oregon, the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety announced.
Just after 11 a.m. on January 5, the victim, 42-year-old Ryan Antone Dutra of California, was found unconscious with a single gunshot wound to the floor of a hotel room he had rented from a Red Lion. The Inn in Josephine County, Oregon, said law enforcement. He had been discovered by a hotel employee. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Derek and Tera Smith
Through video surveillance, mobile phone technology and license plate readers, authorities said they identified suspects in the murder of Dutra as 41-year-old Derek Ian Smith and his wife, 34-year-old Tera Lindsey Smith. Law enforcement officials said the two were likely to be returning to California by the time they were identified.
The California Highway Police Department in Sacramento, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office and the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.
Around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, the Smiths were located driving on Highway 5 in Newman City, Stanislaus County, and taken into custody without incident, authorities said.
Both face charges of murder, robbery and illegal use of a firearm.
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