Investigators in Sacramento say Fleming may have left northern California. They alerted law enforcement here in the Central Valley that he may be headed this way. He has ties here to the Fresno/Clovis area, including firefighting assignments covered on Action News.
Sacramento County Sheriff's investigators linked Orville Fleming to the stabbing death of his live-in fiancé. The victim's family members identify her to our sister-station, KXTV, as 26-year-old Sarah Douglas.
They say she was found inside her home, by her sister, with multiple stab wounds and a sheet wrapped around her neck. "She died horrifically, she died violently, and she didn't have that coming," Trina Werly, Douglas' aunt said. "Nobody has that coming."
Family members say Chief Fleming was upset over Douglas' plans to leave him. Her sister telling detectives he was waiting for her Wednesday night. "She was on a night out with her sister and her mom, and she came home, and, according to her sister, he was waiting for her," Werly said.
"He was obsessed with her, and she was going to leave him," she added.
Action News discovered archive video of Fleming from our news crew covering a deadly fire in Madera back in 2003.
Investigators say Fleming left the scene of the crime Thursday morning in a marked Cal Fire truck.
"These are people we look up to as heroes, so if it is true, it's a sad and it's a really terrible thing," said Ronqui Allison, a neighbor.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Department has deputies on the lookout for Chief Fleming.
The victim's family say Fleming and Douglas dated for two years, much of that time enduring many domestic problems.
