A man who murdered three people in Shasta County last year will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty. 33-year-old Michael Todd Merryman broke into a house on Riverview Drive in Lakehead last April 26th. When the 75-year-old homeowner Pamela Castleberry arrived, Merryman shot her in the head and stole guns, jewelry and other valuables. He then cleaned up the blood and placed the body of Castleberry in her SUV and drove the vehicle to a remote location near Bella Vista and abandoned it with the woman’s body inside. The vehicle with Castleberry’s body was found a few days later. Not knowing that, Merryman somehow recruited two people he didn’t know, 41-year-old Cynthia Duran and 48-year-old Louis Sanchez, to help him retrieve the SUV. When they arrived in Duran’s pickup and the SUV was gone, Merryman was furious. Duran and Sanchez locked themselves in the truck but before they could escape, Merryman shot them through the window, dragged their bodies out onto the ground and set them on fire. He took the truck along with Duran’s dog, Bamb Bamb. A short time later he crashed the truck, abandoned the dog and wandered off into the woods in the Oak Run area. He was admitted to a Redding hospital, where detectives tracked him down because he was on parole for burglary and had a warrant for a violation. Following his guilty plea, Merryman will be sentenced on March 26th to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 126 years to life.
-Steve Gibson