Hunt is on for Cal Fire chief suspected of stabbing fiancee to death

The hunt is on for a Cal Fire battalion chief suspected of stabbing his 26-year-old fiancee to death in Northern California after his truck was found abandoned Thursday night in Elk Grove.

Authorities have been searching for Orville Fleming, 55, since the body of Sarah Douglas was reportedly found by her sister with multiple stab wounds Thursday morning in the couple’s Sacramento home.

His 2007 Chevy, which has a Cal Fire logo painted on its side, was found by Elk Grove police about 8 p.m. Thursday. However, a search by air and ground was unsuccessful, KCRA-TV reported.

Douglas’ aunt, Trina Werly, told the station that the scene inside the home was bloody and disheveled.

“It was extremely violent, you could see there was a struggle,” she said.

A spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the Sacramento Bee that Fleming is a battalion chief and instructor at an agency fire academy in Ione, which is about 35 miles southeast of Sacramento.

In a statement, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Bowman said Fleming may have ties to the Clovis and Fresno area.

Fleming is described as white, with brown hair and brown eyes, authorities said. He is 6 feet 1 and weighs about 190 pounds.

Douglas’ family, meanwhile, was left grappling with her sudden, violent death, and how the episode would be resolved.

“They said he was a good guy, but that he was very controlling and obsessing over her,” Werly told KCRA. “We’re just wondering how this is going to turn out.”

Anyone with information regarding Fleming’s location is asked to call homicide detectives at (916) 874-5115.