2000 Roseville Cold Case Murder Suspect Pleads Guilty

Michael Elijah Adams pleaded guilty today, Nov. 3, to second-degree murder of John Semler Owens in January 2000.

In June, Roseville Police detectives arrested Adams, a transient, in connection with the murder of 46-year-old Owens, a transient freight train rider. Adams will be sentenced Dec. 15 and faces 15 years to life in a California Department of Corrections Facility, according to a news release from the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.

On Jan. 21, 2000, Owens’ body was found on a gravel service road next to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near PFE Road in Roseville. He had suffered blunt force trauma to his head.

Following the murder, Adams, who identified himself to investigators as 30-year-old Michael A. Thomas, was considered a suspect, but local police were not able to locate him.

In 2004, Roseville detectives submitted DNA evidence collected from the crime scene to the national DNA database, but no match was found.

In 2010, Adams was arrested in San Bernardino County on a robbery charge, and San Bernardino County authorities routinely collected his DNA and submitted it to the national DNA database. California Department of Justice criminologists, which was funded by Placer County’s cold case grant, then linked Adams’ DNA to Roseville’s homicide case.

A search warrant was issues for Adams in Oregon and on May 17, he was arrested in Washington on unrelated charges.

“This conviction would not have been possible without the grant funding and collaborative work of law enforcement agencies throughout the western states,” prosecutor Doug Van Breeman said in a release.