A vehicle identified through overnight video reviews was located about 14 hours after the shooting.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Surveillance recordings and an automated license plate alert helped Santa Rosa police identify and arrest two Lake County residents after a woman was fatally shot outside a Marlow Road shopping center, according to the department’s account of the investigation.
The arrests followed a tightly compressed investigation that moved from emergency calls and lifesaving efforts to overnight video reviews, a vehicle identification and a traffic stop the next morning. Police arrested Dwight Kestler on suspicion of murder and Jill Bynum as an alleged accessory, but the motive and any relationship between Kestler and the victim remain undisclosed.
Dispatchers began receiving 911 calls at about 9:15 p.m. June 8 from people who heard gunshots in the 3000 block of Marlow Road. Callers soon reported that an adult woman had been shot and that bystanders were performing CPR. The first officer arrived in less than five minutes, police said, and took over the effort until emergency medical workers reached the scene. The woman died despite those attempts. Detectives said she had been standing near the northwest entrance to a shopping center when a masked man dressed in dark clothing walked toward her and fired several times. The man then headed south on Marlow Road on foot. Police did not report an exchange of words, a robbery or a confrontation before the gunfire. That left detectives with a short description, a direction of travel and recordings from cameras installed around the surrounding commercial and residential blocks.
Investigators spent the night collecting and reviewing footage from businesses and homes near the crime scene. By about 11 a.m. June 9, they had identified a vehicle they believed was associated with the gunman and obtained its license plate number. Police entered the plate into an automated reader database designed to notify law enforcement when participating cameras detect a listed vehicle. At about 11:26 a.m., a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy spotted the vehicle near Chanate Road and Mendocino Avenue. The location was less than 3 miles from the shopping center and roughly 14 hours after the first shooting report. Officers stopped the vehicle and detained all three occupants. Police identified two of them as Kestler, 56, and Bynum, 57, both Clearlake residents. The third occupant was questioned and released after detectives determined that person had no involvement in the homicide.
A search of the vehicle produced a revolver and other evidence believed to be connected to the killing, police said. The department has not publicly stated whether ballistic testing matched the revolver to bullets or cartridge evidence recovered at the scene. Officials also have not said who owned the vehicle, where it had traveled during the night or how the video linked it to the masked person seen near the shopping center. Those details could become important as prosecutors seek to establish who was present, who possessed the firearm and what happened between the shooting and the traffic stop. Detectives later extended the investigation about 90 miles north into Lake County. They served a warrant at a residence associated with Kestler in the 3200 block of Eighth Street in Clearlake and reported finding more evidence that linked him to the homicide. Police did not release an inventory of the seized property.
The investigation illustrates how separate forms of recorded evidence can be combined during the first hours after a violent crime. Traditional surveillance cameras capture activity at fixed locations, while license plate readers record plate numbers, times and places when vehicles pass within a camera’s view. In this case, police said investigators first used residential and commercial footage to identify a vehicle and then used the plate information to help locate it. A sheriff’s deputy made the reported sighting that led to the stop. The technology did not replace witness interviews, searches or forensic work. Detectives still had to determine whether the occupants were connected to the shooting and whether items found in the vehicle supported arrests. Police released the third person after that review, showing that being present during the stop did not by itself lead to an allegation.
Kestler was booked into the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility on suspicion of murder and a probation violation. Bynum was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact and on unrelated warrants. An accessory allegation generally concerns assistance given after a crime rather than participation in the underlying act, but authorities have not described the conduct they attribute to Bynum. Investigators accused Kestler of approaching the woman and shooting her, though the evidence supporting that conclusion has not been fully presented in open court. Police reports, surveillance recordings, search warrant documents and laboratory findings may become part of later proceedings. Prosecutors will decide which charges to pursue, and the defendants will have opportunities to challenge the evidence. Both were initially reported as being held without bail and scheduled to appear in Sonoma County Superior Court.
Several major questions remain unresolved. Police have not publicly stated why the woman was at the shopping center driveway, whether she knew Kestler or whether the shooter selected the location in advance. Investigators also have not said whether a vehicle dropped the gunman near Marlow Road or picked him up after he walked south. The department has described the recovered firearm as a revolver, but it has not released its caliber, registration history or forensic results. Authorities likewise have not explained what evidence was found at the Clearlake residence or how it strengthened the case. Establishing the sequence of events will require prosecutors to connect the person seen near the shopping center, the vehicle located the next morning and the material seized during both searches.
The victim’s family later spoke publicly about the woman, describing her as a mother who cared deeply about bumblebees. Those details emerged after the initial police reports focused on the scene, the suspect description and the arrests. Her father’s remarks highlighted the personal loss behind a case that had drawn attention as Santa Rosa’s first homicide of 2026. At the scene, bystanders had already provided the earliest response by starting CPR before an officer arrived. Their actions, along with the first 911 calls, created part of the timeline investigators later matched against camera recordings. The resulting case now includes evidence gathered across two counties and work by Santa Rosa police, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and emergency personnel.
The case remains pending as investigators review video, forensic evidence and property seized from the vehicle and Clearlake home. Future court filings are expected to provide the next public account of how prosecutors say the surveillance trail connects each defendant to the killing.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.