BEND, Ore. (KOIN) — Medical examiners confirmed a body found earlier this week was that of Kaylee Sawyer, who reportedly died of blunt force trauma, police said.
Sawyer’s body was found Tuesday afternoon off Highway 126 near milepost 100 in an area called Dry Canyon.
Edwin Lara, 31, was arrested the same day after fleeing Oregon and driving into California. He was arrested on a number of charges including kidnapping and robbery.
He was later charged with murder in Deschutes County.
Sawyer’s boyfriend, Camron Riemhofer, was the last person to see her before she disappeared Sunday night. She was at a coworker’s bachelorette party in downtown Bend when she reportedly called Riemhofer to pick her up.
She was allegedly intoxicated at the time and the pair got into a fight in the parking lot of their apartment. Riemhofer said he left to go inside, and when he came back Sawyer was gone, court records show.
Sawyer sent her last text to her boyfriend saying “Good bye” around 1 a.m.
Lara’s wife, Bend police officer Isabel Ponce-Lara, reached out to police to let them know about her husband’s alleged involvement in Sawyer’s disappearance.
Ponce-Lara said her husband acted “out of the ordinary” when he came home from work Sunday night, according to court documents. The college campus safety officer told his wife Sawyer walked out in front of him and he hit her with his work vehicle.
He dumped her body, hid her personal belongings in a shed at his home and fled, court records show. Police later learned he allegedly kidnapped a Salem woman and stole her car. The woman was with him when he reportedly shot an elderly man in the stomach, kidnapped 3 other people and stole their car before being arrested.
Lara is expected to appear in Siskiyou County Superior Court Thursday afternoon.