Fletcher Ross Pinkham Accused of Matricide in Shocking Mendocino County Murder/Arson Case

39-year-old Fletcher Ross Pinkham stands accused of murdering his 76-year-old mother Linda Mercurio earlier this week. Authorities are claiming that after he violently killed her, he intentionally set fire to her Mendocino Coast home intending to incinerate her body and destroy any evidence of his violent crimes. 

Pinkham now sits behind bars on Ukiah’s Low Gap Road at the Mendocino County Jail with his bail set at $1,000,000 facing allegations of matricide, the killing of one’s own mother, a rare form of murder comprising less than 2% of all U.S. homicides.

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Captain Quincy Cromer told us the case began with a structure fire on the 39000 block of Little River Airport Road in Little River, California on the morning of February 20, 2024, around 7:40 a.m. 

Firefighters at the scene were concerned a resident by the name of Linda Mercurio was missing and could still be inside the home prompting them to contact deputies. Firefighters relayed to MCSO that Mercurio lived alone and her vehicle was destroyed by the structure fire. These details prompted sheriff’s office personnel to respond. 

Upon arrival, deputies found the multi-story home was unstable and too hot for immediate search efforts. While personnel with the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department were working to mop up the fire, Captain Cromer said the home collapsed in on itself 

Around five minutes before deputies arrived at the scene, a man by the name of Fletcher Ross Pinkham emerged from a nearby wooded area in an “altered state” as Captain Cromer described it, and “appeared to need medical attention.” Pinkham initially refused medical treatment and due to the suspicious nature of the circumstances, he was detained while deputies investigated the incident.

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Investigators proceeded to comb the wooded area where Pinkham had emerged from and soon located “firearms, ammunition, clothing, personal belongings, and a vehicle” all believed to belong to Pinkham. Captain Cromer also confirmed investigators searched a pond in the vicinity where they located evidence of a violent assault. 

Captain Cromer told us that evidence located during the investigation indicated a “violent interaction had occurred between Pinkham and his mother, Mercurio.” Investigators believe based on “evidence and statements provided by Pinkham” that he shot and killed his mother. Trying to conceal the “violent nature of the crime committed against his mother, Pinkham intentionally set her home on fire.

Captain Cromer confirmed that Pinkham was “appropriately restrained” when he was taken into custody and transported to jail to ensure his safety. 

Pinkham was booked in the Mendocino County Jail on the afternoon of February 20, 2024, and initially charged with one count of felony murder. The next day, an enhancement was added to his booking log related to the murder charge: “a person using a firearm during the commission of [a] serious felony”.

In the following days, MCSO’s Search and Rescue team assisted investigators in collecting evidence in the wooded area. Sheriff’s Office personnel “maintained security for multiple days” because a thorough search of the building’s interior was stymied due to what Captain Cromer described as a “large amount of smoldering rubble”. The residence was a 4-story, wood-framed structure that had essentially “collapsed into the basement” requiring “numerous days of cooling and firefighting efforts to safely search through the debris to for Mercurio’s remains.” 

On Friday, February 23, 2024, the rubble cooled enough to allow authorities to search Mercurio’s home for her remains. Assisted by experts from Chico State’s Forensic Anthropology Department, investigators located what they believe to be Mercurio’s remains. Captain Cromer noted additional testing and examination is required to confirm the identification, but Mercurio’s “legal next of kin” were notified. 

The Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against Pinkham on February 21, 2024, claiming he murdered 76-year-old Linda Mercurio “with deliberation and premeditation, and with malice aforethought”. The complaint details that Pinkham allegedly “intentionally and personally discharged a firearm, to wit, a rifle, that proximately caused the death of Linda Mercurio.”

On the afternoon of February 22, Pinkham appeared in front of Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Victoria Shanahan for his arraignment represented by Public Defender Mary Leclair. Based on the findings of Probabtion’s Risk Assessment Report, Judge Shanahan denied Pinkham’s pretrial release monitoring. Pinkham’s bail has been set at $1,000,000. 

Pinkham has taken the life of another before. In April 2005, 20-year-old Pinkham stabbed a 17-year-old during a cannabis transaction. As reported in UC Santa Barbara’s newspaper The Daily Nexus, three juveniles attempted to rob Pinkham who was at that point an established cannabis dealer prompting him to pull the knife, stab the youth, and flee the scene. 

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An article in the Lompoc Record indicates Pinkham claimed the stabbing was an act of self-defense and the district attorney opted not to file murder charges and Pinkham pled no contest to transporting more than a pound of marijuana. His attorney suggested a fitting punishment for the fatal stabbing would be probation. The parents of the dead 17-year-old were publicly outraged. Pinkham avoided a murder charge quoted as saying their son was “the only one who does not have a voice to tell us his side of what happened that night.”

Pinkham’s LinkedIn profile indicates he is the president of a Santa Rosa-based company called Focus Tech Inc. specializing in designing and installing security cameras, specializing in perimeter protection, and remote site systems. His work history is based in Sonoma County back to 2010 at one point working in guest services at a winery and later as a security technician at another Santa Rosa-based security company.

Pinkham is slated to appear in front of Judge Clay Brennan on Monday, February 26, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. to offer his plea.

At this point, Captain Cromer said that investigators believe Pinkham acted alone and do not believe anyone else was involved or assisted with her murder. 

If any member of the public has more information regarding Pinkham or this case, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office asks you to contact them at 707-463-4086. Information can also be offered anonymously by calling the Sheriff’s Office tip line at 707-234-2100.

It must be stated that the charges Pinkham faces have not been proven in a court of law. Following the legal principle of the presumption of innocence, Pinkham should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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