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Deputies learned about the shooting after someone dropped off the victim at a McDonald's restaurant at Lander and Bloss avenues in Hilmar around 10:30 p.m. Before deputies arrived, the wounded victim had been stumbling outside. A 20-year-old woman and the victim's 18-year-old male cousin said they saw Lopez outside the restaurant and stopped to help him, sheriff's investigators said.

When deputies pulled up to the scene, the victim was lying in the back seat of the woman's car, his head in his cousin's lap. He died later at a Modesto hospital.

Vue Pao Xiong, 17 (Aug. 22, Merced)

Xiong was shot to death at an apartment complex in the 1300 block of West Third Street.

Police responded to the scene shortly before 12:30 a.m. and found Xiong lying unconscious in a walkway between two apartment buildings. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Xiong wasn't a resident in the apartment complex where he was killed, and police said the victim was there to attend a gathering in the parking lot.

No one has been arrested in the case.

Marlis Riley, (Sept. 12, Merced)

Police say Riley died during the early morning hours of Sept. 12, after a fight with two male suspects in the 1400 block of Conestoga Drive. Both suspects, Nicholas Terrill Rhoads, 26, and Donald Emory Watts, 39, are in custody and have been charged with manslaughter.

Police believe Riley fell backwards during the fight and hit his head against the concrete.

The victim was the younger brother of Michael Riley, a 29-year-old Navy veteran and an honors student at Merced College, who was shot to death on Oct. 7, 2008, in the 1100 block of Loughborough Drive, outside the Village Meadows Apartments.

Michael Riley's killer has never been found and that crime remains unsolved.

William Cisneros 82, Maria Cisneros-Salazar, 43 (Sept. 30)

The married couple's badly decomposed bodies were discovered in the laundry room of their 440 Mission Ave. home, outside Merced. Merced County sheriff's investigators said the bodies had been stabbed several times.

A 52-year-old suspect, Julio Cesar Guevara Bonilla, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Bonilla also faces two felony counts of grand theft and one felony count of auto theft.

Detectives from the department's Major Crimes Unit tracked Bonilla from Merced to Corona to Victorville to Louisiana after the Cisneroses' bodies were found. He was finally arrested by law enforcement in Kenner, La.

Bonilla lived with the couple and had worked in their gardening business, according to investigators. He remains in custody at the Merced County Jail.

Derrick Bateman, 26 (Oct. 17, Merced)

Bateman was shot to death inside his second-floor unit at the Ridgeview Meadows apartment complex at Childs and Parsons avenues, according to police.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Bill James, 33 (Nov. 7, Gustine) James died after being stabbed at a bar called the Gustine Club, located at 431 Fifth St.

Investigators believe eight to 10 men walked into the bar. A fight erupted after the men approached the victim. During the fight, sheriff's investigators said, one of the suspects sprayed bar patrons with a can of Mace or pepper spray.

Once the bar was empty, the attackers stabbed James several times. The fight spilled onto the street. James was stabbed again and collapsed, investigators said.

Four suspects, Ruben Silva, 22, David Silva, 23, Mark Oseguera, 24, and Richard Naudin, 30, were taken into custody in the case, according to deputy Tom MacKenzie, sheriff's spokesman.