Marin County arrest for teen suspect in stabbing death of Sebastopol man, 19

An 18-year-old man suspected of stabbing to death another Sebastopol man near downtown about noon on Saturday was arrested hours later in Marin County after leading authorities on an extensive manhunt.

Anthony William Ibach of Sebastopol was arrested around 6 p.m. in San Rafael, said Sgt. Henri Boustany with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, which is assisting in the investigation.

Ibach is suspected of killing Cory Alan Vaughn, 19, after a fight between the two spilled from a nearby house party into a parking lot shared by the Gravenstein Grill and several other businesses at the intersection of Bodega Avenue and Pleasant Hill Road, Sebastopol police said.

The stabbing occurred less than an hour after the end of the town’s popular Apple Blossom Parade, an annual springtime event which draws thousands of people to downtown Sebastopol.

Witnesses saw Ibach stab the man multiple times about 12:30 p.m. before fleeing in a burgundy BMW sedan, police said. Vaughn, who was a 2016 Analy High School graduate, according to a friend, died in the parking lot after unsuccessful attempts by a friend and paramedics to resuscitate him, police said.

The homicide had no ties to the nearby businesses.

Ibach was known to Sebastopol police before Saturday and had multiple contacts with officers in the past, said Sebastopol Police Chief James Conner, who would not elaborate because the suspect was a minor at the time.

Steven Kellner, superintendent of West Sonoma County Union High School District, which includes Analy High, declined to comment Saturday afternoon, saying he was just learning about the slaying.

Representatives of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office withheld additional details Saturday, including information about the relationship, if any, between the victim and the suspect, investigators’ preliminary findings about a motive in the stabbing and any details about Ibach’s arrest in San Rafael.

Authorities across western Sonoma County, as well as a law enforcement helicopter, had been involved in a search for the suspect since the initial report of the stabbing.

For several hours Saturday afternoon, the victim’s body lay covered by a tarp in the parking lot as witnesses were interviewed by police.

Vaughn’s family members and friends gathered outside the crime scene crying and consoling each other. His mother declined to comment and asked for privacy.

“He was a great man who would do anything for anyone, especially me,” said Nathan Bailey, 20. “He was like a brother to me.”

Vaughn’s Facebook page indicated he had attended Analy High but offered few other specifics about his life. Dated photos appear to show his prior involvement in youth football.

Other friends and relatives of Vaughn and people who appeared to know Ibach could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.

The slaying was an exceptionally rare one for Sebastopol, which, aside from a fatal officer-involved shooting in 2011, saw its last homicide within city limits in 1998.