Photo: Codi Slayton
16-year old Josephine Jimenez went missing on October 14, 2019; on October 22, 2019, her body was discovered in a rural agricultural property in Madera County.
The body’s placement was in such a way it triggered Madera County deputies to request homicide detectives at the scene. In December 2019, detectives received a call from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the primary law enforcement agency for the U.S. Department of the Navy.
During the course of an investigation into a separate matter, they came across an individual of interest in Josephine’s case.
Madera County Sheriff’s Office detectives traveled to Oceanside, CA to interview the now former Marine, 19-year old Codi Slayton.
After the interview, Slayton was taken into custody by the NCIS for the separate matter. MCSO detectives continued their investigation during which they discovered additional evidence linking Slayton to Josephine’s murder.
On January 16, 2020, Slayton was arrested for murder by Madera County Sheriff detectives. In addition to evidence linking him to Josephine’s murder, detectives discovered Slayton had been using various social media applications to communicate with young girls throughout California, and possibly other states.
Detectives urge anyone who communicated with Slayton online to contact them at (559) 675-7770 or leave an anonymous tip on the Crime Stoppers hotline at 559-498-7867.
Slayton was arraigned Tuesday, January 21, 2020 for murder. His bail is set at $5Milllion, raised last week from $1Million. He remains at the Madera County Department of Corrections as of the time of this writing.
Photo from Madera County Department of Corrections
