Arrest made after triple murder in quiet town

Jeremy Ray Baker, 36

LOOMIS — An old law enforcement ploy was used to hold a suspect long enough on one charge as homicide investigators worked to link the man to a triple murder in the quiet town of Loomis on Monday.

Jeremy Ray Baker, 36, of Roseville remains in custody on a no-bail hold at the Placer County Jail.

Baker was originally arrested on a weapons charge Sunday when deputies reportedly found a silencer in the possession of the probationer. He is now considered the trigger man responsible for three dead individuals discovered at a Rachel Lane home.

“We held him on that charge, but we were convinced he was responsible for the murders, so we used the time to investigate further,” said Mark Reed, the Placer County Sheriff’s Department investigations lieutenant who doubles as the department’s spokesman.

Although the department will not reveal what the additional information was, it apparently was enough to charge Baker the following day with additional crimes, including homicide.

The charges stem from the Loomis Fire Protection District’s discovery Saturday of two dead bodies and a severely injured third person at a Rachel Lane home.

According to a sheriff’s department report, Lawrence Fay, 49, and Nanette Florance, 47, were already dead when fire district personnel arrived, while 56-year old John Camara died later after being transported to a local hospital.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Alfredo Guitron told local media that all three victims appeared to have been shot in the head. Reed said it was premature to say if the silencer found in Baker’s possession matched a firearm of the caliber used to kill the three.

Authorities did say that some area residents reported hearing gunshots on Friday evening, but a check of 911 records did not produce any calls to local police about that.

According to Reed, some tips from the community helped tie Baker to the crime, “but we still have a lot of work to do in gathering enough evidence in order to get this to the district attorney.”

Reed added that investigators feel the triple homicide was “not a random crime.”

“We think he knew the victims.” he said.

Loomis is a chartered town tucked in a bucolic area outside of Auburn.

“We don’t get many major crimes from there, so to have triple homicide is really earth-shattering,” Reed said.