Slain Woman Found in Vacaville Identified as Sandra Coke

A woman who was found dead in Vacaville on Friday has been identified as missing 50-yer-old Oakland resident Sandra Coke, Oakland police said today.

Police said Coke was the victim of a homicide. Spokeswoman Johnna Watson said at a brief news conference at police headquarters this afternoon that the department is not yet able to release more details about the case.

"We're extremely limited in the amount of information we can share with the community," Watson said.

Coke had last been seen by her 15-year-old daughter when she left her home in the 600 block of Aileen Street in Oakland at around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 4.

She was reported missing after she failed to return home that evening.

Coke's car was found parked in the 800 block of 32nd Street in Oakland on the evening of Aug. 5, and police said they found one of her two cellphones discarded along Interstate 80 in Richmond.

Last Thursday, the search for Coke focused on an area near Lake Chabot behind Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo.

The next day, searchers began scouring Lagoon Valley Park in Vacaville and found a body in a rural area west of I-80 across from the park, Solano County sheriff's officials said.

Coke was an investigator for the federal public defender's office in Sacramento, and many of her colleagues participated in the search.

Oakland police have identified convicted sex offender Randy Alana,  56, as a person of interest in Coke's disappearance. The two had dated in the distant past, police said. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that "a source close to the investigation" said Coke's Mini Cooper had been caught on a surveillance camera crossing the Carquinez Bridge after the time of her disappearance. "Alana was filmed by another camera filling up Coke's car at a gas station on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in North Oakland, the source said."

Alana is currently in custody on an unrelated parole violation.

Coke is believed to have been with Alana on the night of her disappearance, according to police.