The mother of Marty York – an actor best known for his role in the beloved 1990s baseball movie “The Sandlot” – was found dead in his Northern California home Thursday morning and a suspect was arrested in Oregon, the authorities said.
Officers found the body of Deanna Esmaeel, a Del Norte County sheriff’s deputy, inside her home on North Bank Road in Crescent City on Thursday morning, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s department.
Her boyfriend, 54-year-old Daniel James Walter, was announced as a suspect in the attack soon after and was arrested over the California-Oregon border in Brookings on Friday night, authorities said.
“This is the hardest post I’ve ever had to write but I found out from the sheriff’s department last night that my mother was killed by a man she saw,” York wrote on Instagram on Friday, next to a photo of It’s his Christmas. smiling next to his mother. “My emotions are terrible right now between anger, revenge, crying.”
In an interview, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott said Walter was arrested near a homeless camp along the Chetco River in Oregon on Friday. A judge signed a warrant to extradite Walter back to California, according to Scott, who said murder charges are expected to be filed next week.
Esmaeel worked as a court bailiff for the sheriff’s department and joined the agency more than three years ago, Scott said. She and Walter used to live together. The sheriff refused to say how Esmaeel was killed.
Sheriff’s deputies had several prior contacts with Walter regarding what Scott described as “mental health episodes,” including times when he threatened suicide. Deputies were able to connect him to the service providers of the incidents, Scott said. It’s unclear when the episodes occurred, and Scott said deputies have not been in contact with Walter recently.
