California landscaping company supervisor’s body found under brush and branches, employee accused of murder

A man who vanished while working at a construction site was found dead and a colleague has been arrested for his murder, authorities in California said.

According to the San Rafael Police Department, workers at a Concord landscaping company grew concerned when David Nunez Sanchez, 42, failed to come back from a job on May 11. A family member also contacted police to report Sanchez never returned to his Pittsburgh home at the end of the workday. 

The following day, a representative from the landscaping company drove to the apartment complex job site Sanchez was working at in San Rafael, found his locked truck and contacted police.

Responding officers checked the vehicle and noticed Sanchez’s cell phone and uneaten lunch. They then began searching the area for the missing man. After about 40 minutes, San Rafael police said, the located Sanchez’s body, which appeared to be “deliberately buried under brush and branches.” 

Detectives interviewed three employees who were at the site the same day as Sanchez and learned the victim was a work crew supervisor. The three workers stated they were on the job with Sanchez in the morning and noticed his truck was still there when they were done working even though he was supposed to be at another project in Oakland.

The employees “assumed he was still working the San Rafael job site despite not seeing him when they left,” police said.

Police said they questioned one of the workers, Miguel Jimenez Alejandre, 33, at length concerning his interaction with Sanchez that morning and alleged he confessed to killing the supervisor.

Authorities arrested Alejandre and booked him into the Marin County Jail on a murder charge. They have declined to release the manner of Sanchez’s death or a possible motive.