Benito Devila Sanchez, a 49-year-old Hispanic/Latino man, disappeared from his home in the Oregon Pines subdivision north of Beatty, Oregon, on January 24, 2018. His roommate reported him missing that morning; deputies who entered the residence found signs of a violent confrontation and the Klamath County Major Crime Team determined Sanchez had been removed from the scene. His body was found later that day in a remote, wooded area a few miles away east of the Sprague River.

Investigators focused on a neighbor and acquaintance, Richard Bryon Johnson, and by the afternoon of January 25, 2018, Johnson was arrested on charges including murder, first-degree burglary, tampering with evidence, and unlawful use of a weapon. Authorities said their investigation indicated Johnson shot Sanchez in the home, then removed the body and other evidence into the woods. In 2019 Johnson pleaded guilty in Klamath County to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree burglary and was sentenced to more than six years in state prison.