Homicide suspect arrested in death of woman found last year in Northern California orchard
Yuba County sheriff’s detectives on Wednesday night arrested a man accused of homicide in the death of a 27-year-old woman whose body was found nearly a year ago along a rural road in Marysville.
Ricky Lasher, 39, was arrested on suspicion of homicide in the death of Amery Sweany, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday in a news release.
Detectives, serving an arrest warrant on the homicide charge, took Lasher into custody about 8 p.m. Wednesday in the 1400 block of Jamie Drive in Yuba City, sheriff’s officials said. Lasher was booked at the Yuba County Jail.
Sweany’s body was discovered April 27 in the 1700 block of Simpson Lane in Marysville, just outside the town of Linda. Sheriff’s officials said a passerby spotted the body within an orchard near the road.
Authorities have said an autopsy leads them to believe her cause of death was a result of blunt force trauma after possibly being struck by a vehicle, the Appeal-Democrat newspaper reported.
She moved out on her own and continued her studies first at Butte Community College and then at Chico State, according to an obituary for Sweany posted on the website Legacy. She was originally from Vacaville, where she attended Buckingham Magnet Charter School.
In the obituary, Sweany’s family remembered her as compassionate, intelligent and extremely strong-willed.
“Amery faced unfathomable battles in her lifetime and her life was ended abruptly and unjustly,” her family wrote. “Amery wished to overcome her personal battles, and looked forward to living an adventurous and fulfilling life, traveling more, having a successful career and one day raising a family.”
Detectives asked anyone with information relevant to the ongoing homicide investigation to call the Sheriff’s Office at 530-749-7777.
