Fired Fire Captain Pleads Guilty to Gunning Down Girlfriend, Her Young Son | Crime Alert Recap Saturday 03.21.26
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
Breaking crime news as it happens throughout the day! Follow "Crime Alert Hourly Update" now on your favorite podcast app: https://link.chtbl.com/Crime_Alert
Here's some of our top stories this week:
A former captain with California’s wildfire management agency switches to guilty plea in murders of his girlfriend and her second grader son last year to avoid death penalty.
A second Duggar son now in custody charged with lewd and lascivious conduct related to unlawful sexual interactions with a minor.
In Georgia, a longtime grocery store manager says he was fired after stepping in to protect an elderly co-worker from shoplifters and suffering a head injury during the attack.
A cancer-stricken comic travels 3,000 miles on a murder mission. Although he misses his first target - he guns down & kills his 2nd and then cops say, turned the weapon on himself.
Stay informed, stay safe, and stay ahead with "Crime Alert Hourly Update.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Crime alert, hourly update. Breaking Crime News Now. I'm Sidney Sumner. A former captain with California's |
| 0:07.1 | wildfire management agency has pleaded guilty to gunning down his girlfriend and her second grader son last year. |
| 0:13.7 | Darren McFarlane may have changed his plea to guilty to avoid the death penalty, as prosecutors had initially said he faces death or life without parole |
| 0:22.4 | because of special circumstances. Those special circumstances were added because McFarlane killed |
| 0:27.7 | 29-year-old Marissa Herzog and Josiah Devote Lessa because they were witnesses to a crime. |
| 0:34.0 | Details about that crime have not been released, although the boy's death may have been because he witnessed his mother's murder. |
| 0:40.7 | McFarlane also attempted to kill Herzog's daughter in the home, but was unsuccessful. |
| 0:45.6 | Prosecutors say that McFarlane attacked Herzog inside a bedroom before she left the room and used her cell phone. |
| 0:51.8 | McFarlane then obtained a gun and went out to the dining room to kill her. |
| 0:55.8 | The arrest affidavit says that Herzog's murder was willful, deliberate, and premeditated, |
| 1:00.5 | and that she and her son were killed because they witnessed a crime. |
| 1:03.8 | McFarlane then attempted to kill a second child, identified as Herzog's daughter. |
| 1:08.1 | The court documents say the killer did willfully and unlawfully inflict |
| 1:11.6 | unjustifiable mental suffering on a child or permit a child to suffer unjustifiable mental suffering |
| 1:17.3 | under circumstances and conditions likely to reduce great bodily harm. El Dorado County deputies |
| 1:23.1 | found Herzog dead at the scene when they arrived. Josiah was taken to a hospital where he died. |
| 1:28.6 | McFarlane had fled the scene and was later arrested several counties away in Mono County. |
| 1:33.6 | McFarlane was fired shortly after his arrest. |
| 1:36.6 | McFarlane pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, |
| 1:41.1 | attempted murder, child abuse, intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily |
| 1:45.5 | injury and corporal injury to a cohabitant. His sentencing is scheduled for April 13th. |
| 1:51.5 | A 37-year-old Pennsylvania man was charged with abuse of a corpse this week, months after his 70-year-old |
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