A man convicted of two murders in the 1970s was identified as the killer of a woman found dead in a park of Santa Cruz County 40 years ago.
Initially, Richard Somelder was referred to as a person who was interested in the death of 25-year-old Karen Percifield, but initial investigators had never had enough evidence to arrest him.
The body of Percifield was discovered by MPs of Santa Cruz County on May 28, 1976, near Aptos Village Park, and her death quickly managed a murder.
The detectives at that time gathered forensic evidence, according to a report by Santa Cruz County Sheriff, but they failed to develop criminal leading suspect.
In September 1976, Somerhalder was arrested for two other murders in Santa Cruz County and would be served in prison before being released and escaping from the state.
Meanwhile, no arrests were made in the murder of Percifield and the case popped up.
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Santa Cruz County Sheriff investigators review the case in 2019.
In 2019, while reassessing the case, Santa Cruz County Criminals found some evidence to send to the California Justice Bureau of Forensic DNA tests.
Doj developed a male DNA profile, but the suspect is not in any criminal DNA database, leaving investigators without a name.
As they tried to find Somerhalder for DNA reference, detectives learned that he died in 1994.
In the fall of 2023, the Sheriffe office presented Othram forensic evidence at Woodlands, a leader in forensic DNA analysis, which also partnered with the law enforcement of Santa Cruz to identify the remains of the missing teenager in New York, found 30 years ago.
Othram scientists have successfully used advanced forensic tests to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown individual, according to a summary of the OTHRAM case, and then used genetic genealogy to generate new investigators in the case.
The detectives then managed to identify Somerhalder as a suspect responsible for the murder of Percifive.
This identification represents the 59th publicly declared case in California, where investigators used OTHRAM technology to identify a person, according to OTHRAM.
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Investigation gives the family of closing Karen Percifield
While Somerhalder was not held responsible for the murder, Santa Cruz’s order staff said they were proud to give the Karen Percifive family this little closure.
“As long as we have passed, we will never stop looking for the truth,” said Sheriff Chris Clark. “DNA technology progress continues to provide new opportunities to provide justice and close victims and their families – this case is a powerful example of how these achievements can give us the answers we have sought.”
District Attorney of Santa Cruz County, Jeff Rosel, said: “Despite the time and death of the perpetrator, the closure that the resolution of this murder brings to the Percifive family is incredibly important.
The Percifield family issued the following statements:
“For detectives and forensic team, I appreciate them that they are not giving up,” said Percifive’s daughter. “It weighs me throughout my life without having a memory of my mother and I just wonder who could be, it just means so much. I’m just so grateful that you didn’t give up.”
“It’s nice to know that this is not an open case at last, even though it was closed in my mind,” said Percifive’s sister. “This just proves that DNA is a good vehicle to solve these things and put things to rest. I was so young then and I was not equipped to understand everything and I was just so grateful that it was finally over.”
This article originally appeared on Californian Salinas: Killer identified in the 40-year cold case of Santa Cruz County