A Hawaii man was arrested and charged in the 1982 rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old California girl, as authorities say DNA from a relative led to police identifying the suspect.
On the night of Sept. 2, 1982, Karen Stitt was last seen with her boyfriend as the two walked towards a bus stop in Sunnyvale in the California Bay Area, according to a criminal complaint. Her boyfriend left her, later telling police he felt bad for doing so but wanted to get home so he wouldn’t get in trouble for being out late.
The next morning, a truck drive noticed a naked female body in bushes while making a delivery and notified police, the complaint read. Police identified the body as Stitt after it was found 100 yards away from the bus stop she was last seen near. It was determined she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times.
Evidence like sperm and a blood stain on top of a cinderblock wall near where Stitt’s body was found were collected.
In 2000, a DNA profile was made up of the suspect, officially ruling out Stitt’s boyfriend as a suspect, but again with no leads. It wasn’t until 2021 when Sunnyvale Police Detective Matt Hutchison said he received a tip that one of four brothers from Fresno was likely the suspect.
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Over the course of the next year, Hutchinson said in the complaint, he was able to rule out two of the brothers and was unable to “conclusively eliminate” another, leaving Gary Ramirez, a 75-year-old man who was in the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s.
The detective was able to locate Ramirez’s child and took a DNA sample from the child, which showed “very strong statistical support” the DNA from the crime scene came from Ramirez. Sunnyvale police arrested Ramirez at his home in Maui on Aug. 2.
Ramirez remains incarcerated in a Maui jail awaiting an extradition hearing Wednesday to bring him to California, where he will face kidnapping, murder and rape charges.
“Behind every old murder file in every major police department, there is a person, heartbreak, and a mystery,” Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “The mystery of Karen Stitt’s death has been solved thanks to advances in forensic science and a detective that would never, ever give up.”
Contributing: Associated Press
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