On the evening of February 25, 2022, emergency responders found a black Honda Civic flipped over on its top on Vernon Street Northeast near Herrin Road Northeast in Hayesville, an unincorporated area of East Salem. Inside the vehicle was 37-year-old Roberto Gene Gorie, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Initial responders found his injuries suspicious, and an autopsy the next day showed he died from gunshot wounds; the death was ruled a homicide.

Detectives from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit took over the case. Surveillance footage from a nearby home captured an interaction outside Gorie’s vehicle that night, though poor nighttime video quality did not clearly show who fired the weapon. Investigators say the man later charged, Ivan Hererra-Ortiz, had been drinking with three others in the hours before the shooting; another man, Javier Rangel, was charged with hindering prosecution for allegedly driving the charged man away and lying to investigators.

On March 10, 2022, detectives arrested 20-year-old Ivan Hererra-Ortiz and charged him with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. A clear motive for the shooting has not been established; family and friends remember Gorie as a kind and caring man. Did anyone in the Hayesville area see or hear anything that night that could help explain what happened?