DELANO, Calif. (KERO) — Four years after the disappearance of McFarland man Oscar Oliva, law enforcement have made an arrest. 23ABC obtaining the offense report detailing what happened that night.
- 23ABC was able to obtain police reports that spell out what happened to the victim, who was identified as Oscar Oliva.
- The reports say that in April of 2021, Oliva was shot and killed by Ray Anthony
- A confidential informant told investigators that after killing Oliva, Sanchez dumped the body in a trash bin, covered it with leaves and set it on fire.
We have an update on the homicide case of Oscar Oliva of McFarland. 23ABC obtaining police reports on this investigation. A warning that some of the details in this report may be disturbing.
According to the report, a confidential informant came forward on April 10, 2021 to relay information about a possible homicide two days earlier.
The informant says they were told that the victim, 27-year-old Oscar Oliva was shot and killed by Ray Anthony Sanchez over an argument. Sanchez believed Oliva had stolen his car from the McFarland police impound.
Police later identified the individual who was at the murder scene.
The report states Oliva was shot twice, and afterward, the witness states Sanchez dumped his body in a trash bin, covered it with leaves, and set it on fire.
This statement was given three days after Oliva’s death, but an arrest wasn’t officially made until March 14 of this year. It’s still unknown as to why it took police more than three years before arresting Sanchez, who was in prison on an unrelated case. The case will now proceed without the victim's body.
“A body can tell a lot about what happens to a person in a homicide case,” said McFarland police Chief Brian Knox. “When you have a case like the Oscar Oliva case and we don’t have a body right after the incident, then it becomes very difficult to put all the evidence and all these statements together in order to come up with a clear picture of what happened to that person.”
Sanchez is set to be arraigned on April 15 at the Kern County Superior Courthouse on charges of first degree murder.
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