Sheriff's Office Launches Doe Cold Case Project – The Vacaville Reporter

The Solano County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that it has launched the Doe Cold Case Project, with the assistance of the Solano County Coroner's Office, with the goal of reopening and reinvestigating cold cases.

An unsolved case is one in which a deceased person – known only as John Doe or Jane Doe – has not been identified for several years.

According to a press release from the sheriff's office, the coroner has begun exhuming unidentified remains in July 2023 to identify them using new scientific and technological advances.

In the prepared statement, Sheriff and Coroner Thomas A. Ferrara expressed hope that through modern identification methods, investigators would be able to “restore their names and identities and provide some form and degree of closure to their families.”

The Doe Cold Case Project has been running for over a year, with detectives, medical examiners, forensic scientists and law enforcement partners working to identify the dead.

The cases span many decades and each case presents unique challenges, but every opportunity is being used to identify them, sheriff's officials said.

In the coming days, weeks and months, Ferrara hopes to share information about the project and its recent successes.

Investigators will likely ask the public for help in the hope that someone from the Solano community will recognize one of the unknown suspects.

The project's announcement comes as Fred Marion Cain III, 70, is charged with the murder of Jeremy Floyd Stoner. He is accused of special circumstances, which include kidnapping, sodomy and a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 years of age.

Jail records show Cain was arrested near Medford, Oregon, on a warrant served by Solano County Sheriff's officials in Red Bluff on September 27, 2023. He was taken into custody without bail in Fairfield shortly after noon that same day.

Shortly thereafter, during a press conference announcing Cain's arrest, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams mentioned the name of Stoner, who the criminal complaint says was killed in Solano County around February 21.

In addition, Abrams pointed to previous convictions against Cain, which occurred on May 22, 1979, in Contra Costa County Superior Court. He was found guilty of sodomy, rape with the use of intoxicating substances, burglary and first-degree robbery.

Abrams also mentioned that she reinstated the Cold Case Unit in her office after she was first elected in 2014. She thanked new DNA analysis and two cold case investigators, Steve Howisey and Kevin Coelho, for their “tireless work” in solving a case she called “every parent's worst nightmare.” Stoner's death has “shaken” the Vallejo community, she added.

Howisey, Abrams said, “revisited the case in October 2022” and obtained evidence that showed a match to the original suspect in the case, Shawn Melton. However, after a trial and retrial in which the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict, he was released from custody and eventually exonerated.

Investigators concluded that DNA evidence could lead to another suspect, and that led to Cain. According to Abrams, Cain was initially questioned after the March 3, 1987, murder, but was not taken into custody.

Cain, she said, “knew the child” and did not live in Vallejo at the time of the alleged murder.

Coelho, a former Vallejo police officer, described the investigation as “very lengthy” and recalled that the case had been “discussed for years” by Vallejo police officers and others. He said he “has a personal interest in this case.”

In the initial press release, Abrams mentioned that six-year-old Stoner was abducted near his home in Vallejo. Four days after his disappearance, his body was discovered on Sherman Island in Sacramento County. An autopsy revealed that the boy had been sexually abused.

If convicted, Cain may face the death penalty.

In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order suspending executions in California for the duration of his term. However, death penalty convictions are still possible in the Golden State.