By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
Sacramento sheriff's detectives said a man seen in a card room with a Rancho Cordova woman who was found dead Saturday morning is suspected of playing a role in an unrelated sexual assault.
The man, Demetrius Shaffer, 31, who has ties to the Rancho Cordova area, is not considered a suspect in the homicide, but was at the Rancho's Club Casino off Folsom Boulevard in the early hours of Saturday at the same time as 37-year-old Rajeet Kor Singh, according to a sheriff's department news release.
A sheriff's department spokesman said that Shaffer is wanted for questioning. The spokesman said detectives are trying to determine Singh's whereabouts in the hours before she was found dead.
"He is the last person we know who was seen with the victim," said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. Shaffer was identified after the sheriff's department released video to the media of Shaffer at the card room. Ramos said Shaffer has tattoos of a panther and the letters "EBK" on his upper right forearm.
Singh was found dead - naked from the waist down - at 10:59 a.m. Saturday near Mills Park and Olson drives, authorities said. It is believed that she was strangled to death, Ramos said.
The spokesman also said that Shaffer is suspected in a sex assault last year within Sacramento County. The spokesman declined to go into details on that case.
Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff's detectives at (916) 874-5115 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP.
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.









About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.