Left inset: Melanie Camacho. Right inset: Vicente Jasso (Madera County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The AutoZone in Madera, Calif., where Melanie Camacho was last seen before being murdered by her ex-boyfriend Vicente Jasso (Google Maps).
In a tragic turn of events, the former boyfriend of a California teenager, who vanished after finishing her shift at AutoZone and was later discovered dead in an orchard, has been convicted of her murder.
Vicente Jasso, who was 23 at the time of his arrest for the murder of Melanie Camacho in 2023, was found guilty on Wednesday. The charges included murder with special circumstances of kidnapping and robbery, as detailed in court records obtained by Law&Crime. A jury in Madera County delivered the verdict, which could see Jasso spend the rest of his life in prison.
A second individual involved, Jose Lopez-Hernandez, a friend of Jasso, was sentenced to three years in prison in February 2025 after he admitted to being an accessory after the fact. He has since been released from custody.
The police, in an official statement, revealed that Camacho’s death cause has not been publicly disclosed. She was last seen leaving her workplace, AutoZone on Gateway Drive in Madera, at approximately 10:15 p.m. on November 24, 2023.
“Around 11 p.m., Melanie texted her mother, informing her of plans to meet a friend after work,” the statement noted. “When Melanie didn’t return home by the next morning, her mother reported her missing at around 6:45 a.m.”
Through surveillance footage and witness accounts, authorities confirmed that Camacho, 19, left her job driving her 2014 white Nissan Altima. The car was observed near her workplace around 10:30 p.m., just 30 minutes before her mother received the text about her meeting with a friend.
“Detectives spoke with the friend [Camacho] told her mom she’d be meeting, who reported they never met after work, but rather Melanie planned to meet with an ‘ex’ to either give or receive something,” the police statement said.
Police reported that Jasso and Camacho dated for a few months but had broken up days before Thanksgiving 2023. Jasso has a criminal background that includes a history of domestic abuse dating back to 2016, Fresno ABC affiliate KFSN reported.
Within two hours of Camacho’s mother reporting her missing, police received a call about a car on fire in the area. It was Camacho’s.
Witnesses told police they saw a blue Ford Mustang with a black hood being driven around the same area where her car was found. Queuing up surveillance footage, police said they were able to determine that the Mustang belonged to Lopez-Hernandez.
Lopez-Hernandez was brought in for questioning that night and police executed a search warrant on his home shortly afterward.
The warrant led them to the orchard where Camacho was found, located near a rural highway.
By then, police said they had made Jasso their primary suspect.
Officers spotted him around 7 a.m. the following day driving around Madera in a minivan. California Highway Patrol attempted to stop him and a chase got underway, with Jasso traveling at speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour, according to The Fresno Bee.
Police said that they saw Jasso tossing some of Camacho’s belongings, including her driver’s license, from his car window during the chase.
Jasso was finally stopped thanks to a spike strip that blew out his tires. He managed to escape on foot briefly and hid in a residential neighborhood but was ultimately captured with the help of a police helicopter.
Police have said that Jasso has a criminal history dating back to 2016, with prior arrests for witness intimidation, domestic violence, evading, and reckless driving. He’s due to be sentenced for Camacho’s murder on April 16.
