Melvin Garcia-Vargas, 33, of Forbestown, California, was found dead with a gunshot wound on September 11, 2021, in the back of an SUV parked along a remote road. Butte County deputies’ initial response led investigators to an illegal marijuana growing operation and to Garcia-Vargas’s family members. Detectives interviewed his father, Carlos Garcia-Hernandez, at a Sacramento home the next day and gathered evidence indicating Garcia-Vargas had died at an illegal pot farm controlled by his father in the Forbestown area.

Investigators concluded Garcia-Vargas likely shot himself accidentally while working at the marijuana farm, and that his father and two brothers, Juan Garcia-Vargas, 27, and Ronald Garcia-Vargas, 28, moved and hid his body to conceal the death and the operation. Authorities found five firearms and more than 1,400 marijuana plants across seven plots of land, and arrested Carlos Garcia-Hernandez, Juan and Ronald on misdemeanor counts tied to illegal cultivation, possessing marijuana for sale, and unlawfully moving and disposing of human remains. Two other men from Sacramento, Juan Cruzcupido, 33, and Edgar Najera, 50, were also arrested on cultivation and related marijuana charges; Cruzcupido faced an additional moving and disposing of human remains count.

The investigation is continuing as authorities piece together the scope of the cultivation sites and the events surrounding Garcia-Vargas’s death. Did anyone in the Forbestown or Sacramento communities have information about the farm locations or the people involved?