The Kern County Sheriff's Office said it is investigating a suspicious death after a body was found near Highway 58 in Buttonwillow Tuesday morning.
According to KCSO, deputies responded just before 8 a.m. to the area near Corn Camp Road and Highway 58 for reports of a body. When they arrived they found a man dead at the scene. Homicide detectives were called to the scene and the investigation is ongoing.
This brings the total number of homicides for 2020 up to 118 so far. That number is much higher than the total for all of 2019, which was 95.
With the numbers for homicides increasing in Kern County 23ABC spoke to one of the mothers of the Bakersfield Three, Cheryl Holsonbake who shared her concerns over the rise in local homicides and giving an update on the case of her son Micah.
The Bakersfield Three are three cases of homicide and/or missing persons that gained notoriety in Kern County.
"If people watch the news at all, they can see that murders are happening every day in our community and of course all of those as they are solved are coming into the court system. It's just this neverending lineup," said Holsonbake. "So things have to be coordinated in terms of other cases and trials. So we are confident things will move forward in the upcoming year, which means 2021 will be a difficult year for us."
Holsonbake's son Micah was reported missing on March 23rd of 2018 and in July of that year, his missing person's case turned into a homicide case after the Kern County Sheriff's Office confirmed that his remains were found at Hart Park.
Another one of the Bakersfield Three, Baylee Despot, who is still missing has been connected to Micah's death as well as her boyfriend at the time, Matthew Queen. Both are facing murder charges. But the case has been on hold since May of this year.
Holsonbake said that anyone grieving from a loss by homicide can reach out to the Bakersfield 3 charity on Facebook for support.
WATCH HER FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
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