Dakota Morningstar, a 32-year-old woman, tragically lost her life in a shooting incident that occurred late at night on April 13, 2025, in the rural Hurleton area east of Oroville, California. The incident took place at approximately 11:55 PM in the 600 block of Black Bart Road, where Morningstar had arrived to collect her dog and personal belongings from a property she had recently moved out of.
According to Butte County law enforcement, when deputies responded to reports of a woman with a gunshot wound, they discovered Morningstar with what appeared to be a shotgun wound to her lower left side. Despite their arrival, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses in the area reported that Morningstar had been involved in a verbal argument that ultimately ended in the fatal shooting.
The Butte County District Attorney's office has charged 43-year-old Curtis Ector Morales of Hurleton with the murder. Morales, who was Morningstar's ex-girlfriend and former cohabitant at the Black Bart Road residence, was arrested and booked into the Butte County Jail. During their investigation, sheriff's detectives discovered a short-barreled shotgun concealed in a manzanita bush on the property.
Morales was formally arraigned on April 16, 2025, in Butte County Superior Court, accompanied by his private attorney. He faces felony counts of murder with the use of a firearm and possession of a short-barreled shotgun. The court has set his bail at $2,015,000, and he is scheduled to return to court on April 24, 2025, for entry of plea and setting of a preliminary hearing.
