UPDATE: Man's Body Found Near Highway 20 In Yuba County; Suspect Arrested
MARYSVILLE (CBS13) - A man's body was discovered by a passerby near Highway 20 not far from the Parks Bar Bridge in the Smartsville area of Yuba County on Thursday afternoon.
"Out here it's beautiful. There's no houses around," said resident Donna Jenkins.
But the unpopulated beauty of rural Yuba County is now overshadowed by a murder mystery.
"You hardly ever see cars go by. I hardly ever see my neighbors," said Jenkins.
"You could come back here and not see anybody for a while. It's pretty secluded," said another resident.
Deputies say around 3 p.m. a driver on an unmaintained road near Highway 20 happened upon a white Ford F-250 pickup with Colorado plates. The doors were open, and outside of it, a man on the passenger side was dead. Deputies would only say he suffered major head trauma.
Joseph Aaron Martin was arrested around 1 a.m. Friday in the area of Laurellen Road and Highway 70, Sheriff Steve Durfor said in a statement. Deputies refused to comment on what led them to him as the suspect or what might have prompted the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation.
The 33-year-old victim's name was being withheld pending notification of the family. His last known address was out of Boulder, Colo.
Investigators spent hours processing the murder scene, laying down multiple evidence markers on what appeared to be shell casings.
"It's really kind of scary especially because there's nothing out here, nobody to see," said Jenkins.
For the handful of area neighbors like Jenkins, who literally just moved to the hidden road near the Yuba River, it's a realization just how isolated they are.
"Hopefully the person who did it won't be showing up around here, because it'd be hard to sleep at night," said Jenkins. "No one would ever hear you scream for help," said Jenkins.
