Mendocino County Police Reassure There Is No North Coast Serial Killer Confirmed, Yet

On January 7th, in a field just north of Cloverdale, a woman was found after 4pm on January 7th. The woman was later identified as Amber Dillon, a 33 year old resident of Willits in Mendocino County. Just four days later at 10 am, another woman, identified as 22 year old Ukiah resident Alyssa Mae Sadey, was found by a motorcyclist in an industrial neighborhood in Ukiah.
Both deaths were deemed “suspicious” by the Mendocino police department; causes of death have not been released by forensic pathologists. The public of Mendocino and its surrounding counties have speculated that a serial killer could be behind the deaths, an assumption sparked by the two people both having the same gender, around the same age, and found in relative proximity to one another. But some have gone as far as making greater connections.
Not long ago in Napa, a 37 year old woman, Crystal Lea McCarthy, was found on December 23rd in the Napa River after going missing on December 13th, 2021. Investigators are still unsure of the cause of death considering the fact that the fast waters and rainy weather at the time of death may have caused her to drown, and her belongings were found on the side of the river in a family search. No further information from the forensic pathologist has been released, and the cause of death is still unknown. Only days before that, another woman, identified as Cynthia Crane, was found on December 18th, 2021 in Mays Creek in Guerneville, and her cause of death was also unconfirmed.
Naturally, the media were quick to recognize the connection and posted on Facebook and Instagram that there is a potential Sonoma County/Mendocino County serial killer. Most of the posts have been about the connection between the Mendocino deaths of Dillon and Sadey, but Mendocino county sheriff Matt Kendall informed the public that there is currently “no connection between these two cases.” In response to the social media posts, he stated, “[If] I thought we had a serial killer out there, the public would be the first to know.”