Share and Follow
Left: Darin McFarlin (El Dorado Sheriff’s Office via KCRA). Right: Marissa Divodi-Lessa and Josiah Divodi-Lessa (GoFundMe).
A California fire captain has confessed to fatally shooting his girlfriend and her 7-year-old son, even as over a thousand fellow firefighters were engaged in combating a nearby wildfire.
According to prosecutors, Darin McFarlin, aged 47, altered his plea from not guilty to guilty last Friday. He faced charges in El Dorado County for the first-degree murders of 29-year-old Marissa N. Divodi-Lessa and her son, Josiah Divodi-Lessa, in August 2025. The tragic incident occurred at their residence in Cameron Park, about 30 miles from Sacramento. McFarlin was also accused of shooting at another child present in the house, who was unharmed, leading to charges of attempted murder and child abuse.
The El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office reported that McFarlin admitted guilt to the charges of attempted murder and child abuse. He also confessed to two counts of first-degree murder, with special circumstances including multiple murders, preventing testimony, intentional firearm discharge causing severe injury, and inflicting corporal injury on a cohabitant.
As detailed in the amended criminal complaint, McFarlin acknowledged shooting Divodi-Lessa in his home as she attempted to use a cellphone. Prosecutors suggested that both she and Josiah were targeted to “prevent testimony,” as they were witnesses to a crime and were “intentionally killed” for that reason. The specifics of the crime they allegedly witnessed remain undisclosed.
The complaint states, “[Divodi-Lessa] used her cellphone and … [McFarlin] obtained the gun and went out to the dining room to kill her.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies responded to the shooting around 9 p.m. that night. When they arrived, deputies found the two victims inside the home suffering from gunshot wounds. Divodi-Lessa was pronounced dead at the scene while paramedics rushed Josiah to the hospital, where he later died.
Investigators identified McFarlin as a person of interest and arrested him a few hours later on homicide charges. McFarlin works for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire.
According to local NBC affiliate KCRA, McFarlin was a fire captain for the Amador El Dorado unit. The agency, which is tasked with fighting California’s wildfires, was part of a coalition of more than 1,000 firefighters who were battling a nearby wildfire at the time of the murders.
A GoFundMe page set up for Divodi-Lessa’s family describes her as a mother of two who “loved her babies.” It refers to Josiah as “JoJo.”
“She would always tuck [us] in at night and we would always tell each other, ‘I love you. I love you more. I love you most,’” the mom’s surviving daughter writes in the description. “My brother, Jojo, would always play games with me, especially Hide-and-Seek. That day, we made a box with cute necklaces. The box had a lock on it. It was filled with toys in it (as rewards) for whenever he was good. He was such a sweet boy.”
McFarlin is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13.