A murder suspect has been arrested after investigators used DNA technology to identify him in case from 1982.
A case that had been stalled for 40 years has now been solved thanks to DNA technology. Investigators in Sunnydale, California have arrested a suspect in the September 1982 murder of a 15 year old student Karen Stitt of Palo Alto High School.
After 40 years of searching, Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Detectives finally identified Gary Gene Ramirez, now 75, as the primary suspect in Stitt's murder. The 15 year old California girl was taken in a Northern California bus stop before she was raped and killed, ABC News reported.
Stitt was waiting for a bus in Sunnyvale when she was taken during the early hours of September 3, 1982. Her naked, lifeless body was later found by a delivery truck driver among bushes 91 meters away from the bus stop where she disappeared.
How DNA Technology Help Identify and Apprehend the Suspect in the 40 Year Old Cold Case
The advanced DNA technology of more recent years was instrumental in the identification of the suspect in the 40 year old cold case murder of Stitt. CBS News reported that in 2000, a DNA profile was taken from physical evidence at the crime scene and run through the FBI's Combined DNA Index System or CODIS.
CODIS is made up of three levels of information, namely the Local DNA Index Systems (LDIS) where DNA profiles are stored, the State DNA Index Systems (SDIS) that enables laboratories across states to share information, and the National DNA Index System (NDIS) that supports laboratories in comparing DNA information with each other.
At the time, the DNA profile did not match any information in the FBI's CODIS national database. But using a new investigative technique called forensic genealogy, detectives were able to identify Ramirez as the primary suspect.
Rob Baker, who works at the Cold Case Unit within the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, explained that investigators and genealogists would have to build a family tree using just a DNA sample. From just the sample, they were able to build the family tree and identify Ramirez.
Three years ago, Sunnyvale police Detective Matt Hutchison worked with a genealogist to narrow down the DNA to four brothers. The detective sought out one of Ramirez's children and collected a DNA sample, which later showed a high probability that the suspect they were looking for was in fact their father.
Following the discovery, authorities used a search warrant to get Ramirez's DNA sample, which the crime lab confirmed was a match for the DNA found in the crime scene.
Investigators Take One Step Closure in Bringing Justice to the Stitt Family
Ramirez was arrested in his current residence in Maui, Hawaii on August 2 after his DNA matched the blood from Stitt's leather jacket and the four-foot cinder block wall where she was left after being stabbed 59 times. Ramirez is currently incarcerated in a Maui jail pending an extradition hearing on Wednesday to deliver him to California.
Now, Hutchinson is more determined than ever to solve similar cases. He said, "The violent nature of this crime has always led me to believe that there could be other victims out there either before this case or after this case. And so that's my focus now."
DNA technology used to bring justice to Stitt and her family is the same process used in the 2018 arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., also known as the Golden State Killer in 2018, a former police officer who killed at least 13 people in California between 1974 and 1986.
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