California: Suspect ID’d in Highway 50 tow-truck driver fatality

The California Highway Patrol confirmed Monday it has identified a suspect in a February hit-and-run collision that killed a tow-truck driver on Highway 50. An arrest warrant on felony hit-and-run charges has been requested for Ronald Freeman Demello, a 62-year-old big-rig driver from Stockton, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

Demello is suspected of striking and killing Dixon resident Michael “Mikey” Bower, a married father of two young daughters whose tow truck had become disabled on westbound Highway 50 in West Sacramento on the night of Feb. 23.

“They worked on it for a long time,” CHP Officer Pedro Leon said of the investigators assigned to the collision. He declined to reveal how they identified Demello as a suspect in the case, citing the now-pending court case.

Bower, 29, had been on the job for Octavio’s Towing out of Dixon when his flatbed tow truck began leaking coolant near the Jefferson Boulevard exit.

His boss Octavio Portugal told The Enterprise he went out to the breakdown site to help Bower repair the problem. He later radioed Bower to check his status and, when he didn’t get a response, headed back to the scene.

By then, someone had discovered Bower’s body on the freeway shoulder in front of the tow truck.

CHP investigators said at the time it appeared Bower was in the process of packing up the orange emergency triangles he had used to alert other motorists to his disabled tow truck when he was struck by another westbound vehicle, believed to be a big-rig because of the extent of Bower’s injuries.

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