Two men held in Guerneville murder case

Two men are being held as suspects, one in Sonoma County and one
in Arizona, in the killing of a longtime Guerneville resident,
according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department.
Sgt. Tim Duke said the dead man was Michael Van Tillman, 66, of
Guerneville.
According to officials, the men suspected in the homicide were
allegedly business associates of Tillman’s, although they declined
to describe the business.
The Sonoma County coroner’s office said Tillman was strangled to
death with a wire and suffered a stab wound to the back of his
neck, following an autopsy conducted early this week.
Money may have been a motive, they said.
Tillman’s body was found after one of the suspects, identified
as Andrew Brian Sharkey, 35, of Blackburn, England, walked into the
sheriff’s department’s main office in Santa Rosa Saturday to report
a possible murder in the Guerneville area.
Duke said a patrol deputy responded and contacted Sharkey in the
lobby.
Sharkey told the deputy that he had witnessed a murder, which
had occurred three days earlier.
While detectives were interviewing Sharkey, Duke said, patrol
deputies responded to the 17000 block of Orchard Avenue in
Guerneville, where the alleged murder occurred.
Deputies entered the residence to check on the welfare of the
occupants and located a deceased male in one of the bedrooms,” Duke
said.
Duke said that after conducting several interviews with Sharkey
and following the collection of physical evidence, Sharkey was
arrested for murder and put on an INS immigration hold. Sharkey
also goes by the name, Andrew Dada, officials said.
A second suspect, 60-year-old Sanford Gary Scott, of Prescott,
Arizona, was detained by Arizona authorities after being alerted to
Scott by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office.
A team of Sonoma County Sheriff’s detectives flew to Yavapai
County, Arizona, where they interviewed Scott and worked with
Arizona officials on the case.
Scott remains in custody in Arizona on a murder charge,
according to Duke, who said the Sonoma County investigators had
finished their work in Arizona and were on their way home as of
Tuesday afternoon, according to Duke.
Sharkey appeared for an arraignment in Sonoma County Superior
Court on the murder charge Tuesday but declined to enter a plea
pending a later appearance.