Despite pleas from Yanez's family, deputies released him two hours before Valley Ford murder

Adrian Yanez's family reported him missing and 'unwell' the day before he bludgeoned Michael Molland to death

Michael Molland was murdered at his home at the end of Carroll Road in Valley Ford. (Photo by Ezra Wallach)

This is Part Three of a series. Read Parts One and Two here.

This is a developing story. Please reach out to me at ezrawallach5528@gmail.com or 847-903-0166 with any details about the murder, the victim or the suspect.

---

The Sebastopol Times has learned that Adrian Yanez, the man who allegedly murdered Michael Molland in Valley Ford on Saturday, Nov. 16, had been reported missing by his family the day before the killing.

After Yanez was kicked out of the Farmhouse Inn in Forestville for sexually harassing an employee and exhibiting strange behavior on Saturday morning, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department examined Yanez and discovered he had been reported missing. The deputies then called Yanez’s family.

Despite pleas from the family for the deputies to hold Yanez, the deputies told the family that they were legally required to release him. Two hours after his release, Yanez allegedly beat Molland to death with a baseball bat at Molland’s home in Valley Ford.

Yanez’s close family member said they are “1,000 percent sure” that Yanez had no previous relationship with Michael Molland, the man who was killed.

A brother disappears

Adrian Yanez’s sibling (who requested that we not use their name) told the Sebastopol Times that Yanez’s family decided to call the Fairfield Police Department to report Yanez, a 44-year-old man who lived with his mother in Fairfield, missing after he had not come home—or answered his phone—for an entire day.

According to Yanez’s sibling and another close family member, Yanez “had not been well for months.”

“We aren’t mental health specialists, but we could tell my brother had high, low, horrible emotions,” Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times. “I think it was manic episodes, honestly, from what we saw…So my mom, of course, was worried for him each time he left.”

Yanez had told his mother around 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14, that he was going to run a quick errand.

Yanez’s sibling took meticulous notes of all the phone calls they would have with law enforcement over the next few days.

As of 8:33 a.m. the next day, on Friday, Nov. 15, he still hadn’t returned or been reached, and Yanez’s sibling called the Fairfield Police Department and reported Yanez missing.

“I explained that he’s never been diagnosed,” Yanez’s sibling recalled telling the police dispatcher. “But, I explained, my brother’s not well…It’s not like him to go missing and not come home. And we’re scared. If he starts acting bizarre…I’m scared he’ll get in a fight with somebody.”

The Fairfield Police Department asked if Yanez’s family had tried contacting him, to which Yanez’s sibling replied that he was not answering his phone. The Fairfield Police tried calling Yanez, and Yanez did not respond.

Later that morning, the Fairfield Police called the Yanez family to tell them that Yanez’s car, a silver 2024 Toyota Camry, had been captured by a traffic light in the Windsor area the previous day.

Yanez’s sibling would call several crisis centers and hospitals in Sonoma County to try and locate him to no avail.

Yanez found at Farmhouse Inn

The Sebastopol Times reported earlier this week that Yanez had checked into Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn on Thursday, the night Yanez went missing. Yanez would stay at the hotel through Saturday morning.

According to hotel staff, Yanez exhibited “deranged” behavior throughout his stay. At 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, the Farmhouse Inn called 911 on Yanez after he sexually harassed—and, at one point, grabbed—one of their employees.

Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Farmhouse Inn at 11:53 a.m., where they examined Yanez and interviewed hotel employees.

“It was unclear at that point if he had committed a crime, but based on his reported behavior, deputies detained and spoke with the man, Adrian Yanez,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

According to Rob Dillion, the Public Information Officer for the Sheriff’s Department, deputies conducted the appropriate tests on Yanez.

“[The deputies] did a 11550 evaluation, which is basically a determination of whether or not somebody’s intoxicated,” said Dillion. “We run through the entire protocol for a 5150 hold”—an involuntary detention and evaluation for those experiencing a mental health crisis—“to see if there’s a mental health component. He wasn’t intoxicated. We didn’t have the legal authority to hold him on a 5150.”

Hotel staff told the Sebastopol Times that all of the alcohol bottles in Yanez’s room were open and half empty after he left the property.

At 12:22 p.m. on Saturday, Yanez’s sibling got a call from a deputy on scene who laid out the situation.

“I explained to the police why we had done the missing person report,” Yanez’s sibling recalls. “I told them that he was not well…I asked him if he could be taken to a crisis [center] or, at least, be detained by the police.”

Deputies told Yanez’s sibling that they could not legally hold Yanez.

Yanez’s sibling said the deputies told them that even though they thought he'd been drinking, he passed the sobriety test, and even though he had been acting erratically, that they could not hold him.

“And I'm thinking to myself, but [the hotel] called you. They're saying he's acting erratically. You’re even telling me he’s not well,” Yanez’s sibling said.

According to Yanez’s sibling, deputies had told Yanez that his family was looking for him, to which Yanez replied that he didn’t want to go back to his family because they wanted him to go to the hospital.

Yanez’s family asked the Sheriff’s Department to hold Yanez outside the Farmhouse Inn while Yanez’s father drove from Fairfield to Forestville—an approximately 70-mile drive—to pick him up.

The Sheriff’s Department called Yanez’s sibling again at 1:02 p.m., an hour after officers arrived on the scene. Deputies said they were taking Yanez to his car, which was parked across the street from the Farmhouse Inn property.

According to Yanez’s sibling, deputies told them that Yanez seemed manic. They said it seemed like Yanez had been spending a lot of money, since he had multiple new sunglasses and clothes in his car.

Deputies again told the Yanez family that Yanez would be released because they no longer had the authority to hold him. The Sheriff’s Department left Yanez across the street from the Farmhouse Inn at 1:24 p.m. on Saturday.

Murder in Valley Ford

At 3:03 p.m. on Saturday, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department got a call about a man screaming outside of a rural home in Valley Ford. According to the Sheriff’s Department, at 3:16 p.m., the first of many Sheriff’s deputies showed up to the Valley Ford property, where they discovered that Michael Molland had been beaten to death with a baseball bat.

At 4:39 p.m., over an hour after the murder took place, Yanez’s sibling got a call from Ryan Mitchell of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. Mitchell could not go into much detail.

“I got a call saying [my brother] had been detained,” Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times.

Yanez’s sibling was asked by Mitchell if they had any idea why Yanez had been reported missing in Fairfield or why he would have been in the Valley Ford area. Yanez’s sibling explained Yanez’s strange behavior and also that the Yanez family had spoken with the Sheriff’s Department earlier that afternoon, when Yanez was escorted out of the Farmhouse Inn.

“I was like, I'm glad they caught up to him,” Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times, “because I'm not thinking the worst [at this point]. I'm thinking maybe, you know, he went to a store or something or acted erratically in public.”

That second phone call with the Sheriff’s Department ended around 5 p.m. After not hearing anything else from any law enforcement for over two hours, Yanez’s sibling called the Sonoma County Jail at 7:16 p.m. and asked for Mitchell. Yanez’s sibling was told they could expect a phone call from Mitchell later in the night.

At 10:33 p.m., Yanez’s sibling received a call from Mitchell, who said that he was on his way to Fairfield to search Yanez’s bedroom.

Here’s how Yanez’s sibling recalls that third phone call:

“I said, ‘What happened?’ He said that my brother had beat up somebody really bad. I said, ‘Oh no, is he okay?’ He said, ‘I can’t give you any more details. I’d rather talk with you in person.’”

Mitchell told Yanez’s family to gather at their mother’s house, where Yanez also lives.

Another close family member of Yanez recalls going over to Yanez’s mother’s house.

“I noticed four SUVs, Fairfield [Police Department], driving by,” Yanez’s close family member recalls. “I said, ‘Man, what the hell is going on here?’…By the time we pulled up to where Adrian [Yanez] lived, I see two big white guys standing outside.”

The close family member remembers thinking, “Hopefully it’s nothing, and [Yanez] could get help finally.”

Yanez’s close family member told the Sebastopol Times that there were four law enforcement officers in total at the house when they arrived, all dressed in plain clothes.

“And then basically they just say, ‘We're here to inform you that we have Adrian Yanez, and he beat somebody up, and that person is now deceased.’…And then we were all just surprised—like stunned.”

“This is what we wanted to avoid,” Yanez’s sibling recalls thinking. “That’s why we wanted him to get help.”

Deputies were in a bind under current law

The Sheriff’s Department told the Sebastopol Times that the deputies did nothing wrong.

“We can’t just detain someone indefinitely,” Dillion said.

The Sebastopol Times spoke with a North Bay law enforcement officer with 20-plus years of service about his experience encountering missing persons like Yanez.

The officer, who requested anonymity, said that in order to detain someone like Yanez for a mental health evaluation under current California law, “they would have to be a danger to themselves and displaying behavior or making statements that make you believe they need immediate medical attention.”

“There are a lot of weird people out there,” the officer continued. “I can’t just go round them all up just because other people think they’re acting weird.”

The Sebastopol Times asked the officer specifically about Yanez’s behavior.

The officer said his experience is to determine if the person is mentally unstable and if they need to be committed to a mental health institution for 72 hours. If officers cannot articulate why an adult like Yanez is an imminent danger to themselves or others, and if there is not a crime established, the officer said, they cannot involuntarily commit him to a mental health facility, even if he has been reported missing.

“I’m not sure I would have done anything differently,” the officer said.

The Yanez family waits

The Yanez family has not been able to contact Yanez directly since he was detained on Saturday. Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times that they have been in touch with the Sheriff’s Department along with Yanez’s public defender.

Yanez’s sibling said the family has tried to get in contact with the Sonoma County Jail—where Yanez is being held without bail—ever since he was detained. Yanez’s sibling said they wanted to inform the jail staff of “how paranoid he was being” prior to his arrest and that he should be put on medication.

On Monday, two days after Yanez had been detained, Yanez’s sibling was contacted by Mitchell of the Sheriff’s Department, who said that Yanez still seemed to be in the midst of a manic episode and is being checked upon every 15 minutes. Mitchell told Yanez’s sibling that Yanez is in the mental health unit of the jail, where he is locked up in a padded cell so that he cannot hurt himself.

Nate Riff, the public defender assigned to Adrian Yanez, told the Sebastopol Times that they are in the early stages of gathering information on the case.

“We're going to be looking at everything, including any mental health issues that are behind this,” Riff said. “We extend our condolences to the family of the deceased for the tragedy that they're going through.”

Yanez is scheduled to be arraigned at the Sonoma County Superior Court at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 25.

“We are a very close family and usually get all together at least once a week,” Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times. “This is the longest we have gone without seeing him…I don’t know if his mind is still lost and if it will ever be restored. As a family we have always relied on each other for support and comfort, and we have each other to comfort us in this pain, but he’s locked up alone and none of us can comfort him, and just thinking about that hurts me.”

Who is Adrian Yanez?

By speaking with Yanez’s family and uncovering documents online, the Sebastopol Times has gathered a fuller picture of who Yanez was throughout his life.

Yanez is a Jehovah’s Witness—a man who, before his latest episodes, was dedicated to service and his faith.

“The guy went to work, came home, got ready and went to church,” a close family member said. “He was a family guy, like I could trust him with my kids. He was not a violent guy at all. He was a good person.”

Yanez is also the oldest of six siblings.

“He was like the older brother who took care of everyone,” said Yanez’s sibling.

Yanez worked as an elevator operator at construction sites and was part of the union, Operating Engineers Local 3. Family members said he always made sure to pay his union dues so that he could be secure for the future, but he had stopped working recently. They also said he had been trying to find a woman to marry and settle down with.

Around 15 years ago, Yanez’s family noticed his first serious bout with mental illness. Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times that that initial mania lasted about a month, but that Yanez has had ups and downs since then.

Earlier this year, Yanez started acting especially unwell.

Recently, Yanez had cut off communications with his siblings and would only speak to his parents. According to his mother, Yanez had been acting especially paranoid. At one point, Yanez told his mother that the Mafia was after him.

“Bipolar people—they just come up with weird theories,” Yanez’s close family member said. “They just start connecting in their minds like a supercomputer.”

“People see this picture of him, and he seems like an angry guy,” Yanez’s close family member added. “But it’s like a 180 [degree] turn…It just doesn’t make sense.”

Yanez’s family told the Sebastopol Times that Yanez has no known criminal history beyond small infractions, which has been what the Sebastopol Times has also found through an investigation.

“Our whole family, we know the value of life,” Yanez’s sibling told the Sebastopol Times. “We know that a human lost their life, but I know my brother, in his right mind, would have never hurt an elderly person or anyone. He wouldn’t even hurt a little animal. And I know once he comes to and he knows what he did, he’s going to need all the help in the world. We feel—I don’t even know what to say. I'm sorry to the victim's family, because we failed our brother—and the system too, the way the laws are.”

---