Twenty years ago, I was standing next to a Sacramento County Sheriff’s sergeant when word came down of a possible break in the manhunt for whoever shot and killed Deputy Jeffrey Mitchell on a rural Sacramento County road on Oct. 27, 2006.
A white van, possibly matching the description of the vehicle Mitchell informed dispatch he was investigating, was found in the river roughly 20 miles away.
The bodies of two people would be found inside.
However, in a news conference, then-Sacramento County Sheriff John McGuinness made clear that the people inside that van were not responsible for Mitchell’s death.
To this day, his murder remains unsolved.
On the 20-year mark since his death, the department posted a new video making a plea for new information to help solve this mystery.
“20 years since we lost one of our own. Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Mitchell. His sacrifice has never been forgotten. But questions still remain,” read a social media posting. “No piece of information is too small. 20 years is a long time to wait for answers, but it’s never too late to do what’s right. To this day, we still do not know what happened on that fateful night. The killer of Deputy Mitchell remains at large.”
Anyone who knows anything about Deputy Mitchell’s death is asked to contact the department directly at 916-874-8477.
“We ask you to find the courage to come forward,” read the social media post.
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