A Laotian-born artist who previously lived in San Francisco, Somboun Sayasane, was reported missing the day after Christmas from his South Sacramento home, and now his roommate has been arrested in connection with his death.
Sayasane, 75, was reported missing on December 28 by family members after he was last seen on Christmas Day near his home at 40th Street and 41st Avenue in South Sacramento, and authorities listed him as an at-risk missing person, due to his age and health issues. Now, four months later, his body has been discovered in some woods in Placerville, about 45 miles away, and his 32-year-old roommate, Benjamin Dougherty, is in police custody.
As KCRA reports via court documents, authorities believe that Sayasane died on or around December 26. Authorities have not yet established a motive for the crime, but they say that Dougherty had help from his 74-year-old father, Robert Dougherty, in disposing of Sayasane's body around December 31.
The body was found near Old Toll Road in Placerville, in a remote part of the Sierra foothills, sometime around April 17, at which point this became a homicide investigation.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office tells SFGate that both Dougherty men were arrested in separate locations in Petaluma on April 17. Benjamin Dougherty has been charged with first-degree murder, and Robert Dougherty has been charged with being an accessory after the fact. Both are being held without bail.
KCRA reports that Robert Dougherty had a hearing before a judge today.
Sayasane, a refugee from Laos, was living in San Francisco 20 years ago and teaching art at the deYoung and the YMCA when he produced a book of paintings of Golden Gate Park titled The Park in the City.
He befriended Rolling Stone journalist Ben Fong-Torres around that time, and Fong-Torres wrote this brief profile of him and his love of karaoke. Both men frequented Yet Wah, the former Richmond District dim sum restaurant that had a karaoke bar, which closed in 2009.
As Fong-Torres tells SFGate this week, "Sayasane was one of the good ones. He was all about positivity and community, and he had great times expressing himself through art and music."
