On May 19, 1971, peach grower Goro Kagehiro noticed a freshly filled hole in his Sutter County orchard and reported it to the sheriff’s office. The body recovered from that grave was identified as 40-year-old Kenneth Whitacre, described in the report as a homeless laborer. His remains showed extreme violence: multiple stab wounds to the body, the chest stabbed, and severe blunt and sharp trauma to the head, including hacking and slashing across the back of the head.

Whitacre’s discovery led investigators to exhume more bodies in shallow graves along the Feather River. Meat receipts found in one grave bearing the name Juan V. Corona linked the scene to a 37-year-old farm labor contractor. A search of Corona’s home and vehicle uncovered a machete, a meat cleaver, a double-bladed ax, a wooden club and a ledger with several victims’ names; Corona was arrested on May 26, 1971.

Exhumations continued until 25 victims were recovered; most were itinerant farm laborers killed by severe slashing and hacking, many with a machete. The motive has not been definitively established.