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Saturday, June 20, 2020

The Orville Fleming Murder Case

     In 2012, 53-year-old Orville "Moe" Fleming and his wife Meagan separated after she accused him of cheating on her. That year, the 20-year veteran and battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (known as Cal Fire) began dating 24-year-old Sarah Jane Douglas. Douglas had come to Fleming's attention through an Internet site that advertised her services as a paid escort. Shortly after they met, she moved into his house in south Sacramento County. At this time Fleming worked as an instructor at the fire academy in Ione, California.

     By April 2014, Fleming's divorce from Meagan was about to be finalized but his relationship with Douglas had deteriorated into turmoil. Having grown weary of his obsessive, controlling behavior, Douglas wanted out of his life.

     On April 28, 2014, shortly before the finalization of their divorce, Fleming reached out to his estranged wife with the following text message: "Can we put us and our family back together!?" She replied, "No!!! It's over, sorry. I gave you many chances. Please leave me in peace now. You already hurt me so bad. I'm over it. Never going back to a cheater. Never. But God bless you. Now leave me alone!!!" Fleming responded by texting: "Come and pick me up. We're supposed to grow old together." She did not respond to his plea.

     On Wednesday night, April 30, 2014, Sarah Douglas, her younger sister Stephanie, and their mother, spent time together at a local gambling casino. During the evening, Sarah revealed that she planned to leave Mr. Fleming.

     Just before midnight, after their night out, Stephanie Douglas and her mother dropped Sarah off at the house she had been sharing with Fleming. Not long after that, Stephanie received a phone call from her sister. In the background she could hear an angry man's voice. Sarah screamed and the phone went dead.

     After the disturbing phone call, Stephanie tried but failed to get back in touch with her sister. Sometime after midnight, Stephanie went to the house to check on Sarah. She found her sister lying face down and dead with a blood-soaked bed sheet wrapped around her neck. Orville Fleming and his vehicle were not at the scene. Stephanie called 911.

     At two-thirty that morning, May 1, 2014, Fleming sent the following text message to his soon-to-be ex-wife: "You should have come and picked me up."

     At the murder scene, detectives encountered the stabbed-to-death victim as well as pools of blood and bloodstains scattered throughout the house. A few hours later, a judge issued a warrant for Orville Fleming's arrest on suspicion of murder.

     At seven that evening, police officers in nearby Elk Grove, California, found the fugitive's abandoned white, 2007 Chevrolet pickup truck with Cal Fire written on the doors. The vehicle had been sitting there all day.

     Because the firefighter had outdoor skills and a familiarity with the Yosemite Valley and other regions of the Sierra Nevada and Santa Cruz Mountains, officers figured he might be hard to find. Fleming also possessed keys to dozens of state buildings, lookout towers, and storage sheds stocked with food and water. He was also presumed to be armed with two handguns that were registered in his name.

     Fleming's superiors at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a few days after Sarah Douglas' murder, terminated him from his $100,000-a-year job. (In 2013, in addition to his base salary, Fleming earned $30,000 in overtime pay.)

     On Friday, May 16, 2014, police officers arrested Orville Fleming as he boarded a bus in Elk Grove, California where he had been hiding all along. The following Monday, at his arraignment hearing, Fleming pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Relatives of the victim were infuriated when the defendant winked at an acquaintance in the courtroom.

     A few weeks after the murder, Meagan Fleming, the murder suspect's ex-wife, told reporters that Orville Fleming and other firefighters had sex with prostitutes on firetrucks at the academy. Moreover, someone had made a sex tape of this activity. She claimed to have seen a tape of her ex-husband and other firefighters having sex with Sarah Douglas. Because of the seriousness of this allegation, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office asked the California Highway Patrol to investigate the claim.

     On Monday December 29, 2014, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesperson announced that sixteen firefighters, most of whom were instructors at the fire academy, had been placed on paid administrative leave. The spokesperson did not say why these firefighters had been given "administrative time off."

      Amid the fire department scandal, Orville Fleming remained incarcerated in the Sacramento County Jail awaiting his trial for the murder of Sarah Douglas.

     On July 15, 2015, after a jury in Sacramento found Orville Fleming guilty of second-degree murder, the Superior Court judge sentenced him to 16 years to life in prison. 

15 comments:

  1. Mr. Fisher,
    I'm a PI working the case, do you have the actual address where the murder occurred?
    Thx. Lisa

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  2. you're a pretty good PI, huh?

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  3. The firefighter/orgy thing has apparently gone up in smoke:

    "The investigation has already determined that allegations of a sex tape are unfounded," said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Janet Upton. Upton further conveyed that no use of prostitutes or other improper sexual activity occurred on state time or equipment.

    This according to: http://www.breitbart.com/california/2014/12/30/firefighter-sex-tape-search-leads-to-suspension-of-16/

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  4. AP: 2 state firefighters fired after homicide probe: http://www.kcra.com/news/local-news/news-sacramento/ap-2-state-firefighters-fired-after-homicide-probe/30845770?absolute=true

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  5. I am currently writing a book about the case and its possible ties to myredbook.com and possible ties to Calfire. It will show different scenarios as to what could have happened, who could have been involved, question whether or not it was a conspiracy, or possible motives as to whether/ why others could have been involved.....Interesting case....It' s not blacand white.....

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  6. Jordonna...please don't. Please let this all pass.

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  7. I did notice that everyone's comments are anonymous except for two Hmmmm, interesting.

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  8. Did anyone else stop to think of the boy that jazz lost his mother or how cal fire fires a man wanted for murder for not showing up to work ?? People make me sick no morel. Sarah June was a real person and didn't deserve to be murdered and the sex tape must have been destroyed by the asst. And Orville

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  9. Really what about sarah being a mother to a six year old boy who doesn't know his mother is dead and yet one day has to read not only the story but the comments of sick people or how cal fire fires a man who is wanted for murder for not showing up to work? ?

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  10. The jury is now being selected for the case in Sacramento.

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  11. It truly sucks to see such a beautiful person slandered by the media and slandered by people who have no idea who she was I hate how people always want to connect her story to read book how people want to go ahead and judge because she wasn't escort that that's all that she was there was someone who is so special could light up a room when she walked in the door but yet everyone wants to focus on what her connection to the escort world me and my beautiful friend rest in peace now with this bastard has been convicted of murder

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  12. This story is not 100% creadible.
    There are 2 glaring errors in this report.

    The TIMES are incorrect.
    And the tape WAS found. But Sarah & that scum were NOT on it. Meagan should be charged still in my opinion.

    It's sad how so many ppl wanna write a book on this when they weren't even in the courtroom.
    All these books that are about to come out on this story do not have my respect because the "facts" will be rewritten all based on hearsay.

    Sarah was gorgeous. It's so sad about her kid too

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  13. She decided one summer that that's what she needed to do to get money as fast as she could to fight to get her son back she planned on doing it for only a couple months,her sister was the one that was escorting for years and now is being tooken care of by a man paying her way in life who she met escorting that's how that life was kinda brought to her attention,sarah was not really that type of person, she meet moe and he had a stable life that she needed and he wanted to provide it and wanted to help with getting her son back. Theres way more to it then people know.

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  14. Email me galtf.b.i@gmail. Lets work something out.

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