Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.
QUESTION: In the late 1980s or early '90s, a teenager was found killed outside of Mather Air Force Base by the canal off of Douglas Road. What were the details of this crime and what was the outcome of the person responsible for it? I know the suspect robbed the victim's parents house on base to make it look like the victim did it.
Submitted by: Rich, Citrus Heights
ANSWER: Jeffery Michael Creagan pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the execution-style slaying of a friend, 17-year-old Clarence Dixon, on July 2, 1990.
He was sentenced in May 1991 to 28 years to life in prison.
According to stories in The Bee, Creagan, also 17 years old, and Dixon were riding their bikes along the Folsom South Canal when Creagan pulled a .357-caliber Magnum revolver from his knapsack and shot his friend between the shoulder blades. He then dragged Dixon to a nearby pond and left him to die in the mud and reeds.
Creagan told authorities that he was angry with Dixon because he had spent more than his share of the $1,120 in cash they had found while breaking into a parked truck in an auto dismantling yard.
After covering Dixon with brush and washing blood off his own bicycle with water from the canal, Creagan returned to his home on Mather Air Force Base. A day later, Creagan burglarized Dixon's home, apparently in an attempt to shift the focus of any investigation away from him, authorities said. Some of the items taken from the Dixon home were subsequently found in Creagan's room.
Creagan was tried as an adult. Now 40 years old, he is at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad.
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