Yreka man found guilty of murder in 2019 Siskiyou County shooting in Klamath River

Damon Arthur, Redding Record Searchlight
·2 min read

A Siskiyou County jury has found a Yreka man guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a former Santa Cruz resident who was found dead in Siskiyou County in 2019.

Timothy Chase McDonald, 26, is due back in Siskiyou County Superior Court for "report and judgment" on July 12, according to court records.

Chase was arrested in January 2020, eight months after the body of Spencer Richard Hodgson, 31, was found in a ravine in the small town of Klamath River, 15 miles northwest of Yreka.

Hodgson had moved to Klamath River shortly before his body was found the morning of April 8, 2019, near Yreka Walker Road. He had been shot multiple times, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office.

After the shooting, detectives continued to investigate the killing, but former Sheriff Jon Lopey said at the time his office developed new leads after issuing news releases about the killing in the Santa Cruz area.

"We had some good leads in the case, but the leads in recent weeks and months had kind of diminished with time," former Sheriff Jon Lopey said in 2020. "I can tell you the latest lead was developed from a call we received as a result of the recent news release we sent out."

Those tips led them to McDonald, officials said at the time, according to Lopey. However, McDonald and Hodgson did not know each other, Lopey said.

McDonald was arrested in Yreka "after new information emerged that McDonald had confided in an acquaintance that he ambushed Hodgson following the discovery of flirtatious texts on his girlfriend’s phone. At the time of the murder it is believed that the victim did not know McDonald," the sheriff's office said last week in a Facebook post.

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Jury finds Yreka man guilty of murder in 2019 Siskiyou County shooting