Fresno County murder case deepens as canal body is found

A body pulled from a Fresno canal on Tuesday added another grim turn to the murder case against Boshay Ware, with investigators saying the remains could be connected to 55-year-old Jerome Saldivar, who has been missing since the May attack that killed Georgiana McGhee. Fresno police have not yet confirmed the identity, and the canal search continued as detectives tried to piece together what happened before, during and after the beating near southwest Fresno.

The investigation began the night of May 10, when officers responded at about 11:42 p.m. to the canal bank near Nielson and Hughes avenues after a report of a woman in the water. McGhee was later identified as the victim, and an autopsy on May 12 ruled her death a homicide. Police say she was severely beaten before being placed in the canal, and that Saldivar was also assaulted during the same incident.

Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto announced Ware’s arrest on June 1, saying the city’s homicide count for 2026 had reached 11. Ware, 48, was booked into Fresno County Jail on murder and torture charges. He appeared in court for arraignment on June 3, and his next court date is June 11.

Investigators have said the violence was not random and that the people involved knew one another, a detail that points away from a street encounter and toward a personal dispute. Some local reporting has linked the case to an RV trailer, and detectives said during an interview with Ware they believed McGhee was killed near Yale and Blackstone avenues, where Ware lives. Police have also said Saldivar was reported missing, and that he may still be alive, seriously injured or dead.

The canal discovery sharpened the accountability questions now hanging over the case: whether the body is Saldivar’s, whether warning signs were missed before the assault, and what sequence of events led to the violence prosecutors say was deliberate and brutal. Family members of McGhee, including cousin Jackie Smith, attended the hearing and have pushed for Ware to remain in custody as the case moves deeper into Fresno County’s court system.