* Sonoma County Sheriff Reports Correct Name of Guerneville Murder Suspect is Gary Allen Scott

Published by Junior Staff Writer on July 1, 2009

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department this afternoon corrected the identity of a suspect in the murder of a Guerneville man last week. The suspect who was arrested in Prescott, Ariz., is 56-year-old Gary Allen Scott, of Prescott, not 60-year-old Sanford Gary Scott of Prescott, Sgt. Tim Duke said. Scott is still in Arizona pending an extradition hearing. The sheriff’s department said he left for Arizona after the slaying. Scott and Andrew Brian Sharkey, 35, of Blackburn, England, are suspected of killing 67-year-old Michael Van Tillman in a residence in the 17000 block of Orchard Avenue in Guerneville on or around June 25. An autopsy determined Tillman died from strangulation with a wire and had been stabbed in the back of his upper neck, Sonoma County coroner’s Sgt. Clint Shubel said. Toxicology tests are pending. Sharkey was arrested after he reported the murder to the sheriff’s department Saturday. He appeared in Sonoma County Superior Court Thursday but delayed entering a plea to murder and elder abuse charges, and will be in court Tuesday.