Man convicted in 1982 cold case murder of Palo Alto student Karen Stitt
The man accused of killing a Palo Alto teen in 1982 was convicted of first-degree murder on Monday, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said.
Gary Ramirez, now 78, was arrested as a suspect in 2022 and extradited from Hawaii. He pleaded no contest and will face life in prison, the DA said.
In 1982, 15-year-old Karen Stitt was last seen by her boyfriend as she walked to a bus stop in Sunnyvale. She was found dead the following day, about 100 yards away from the bust stop.
According to the DA, she had been violently attacked and sexually assaulted. Evidence belonging to the suspect was found at the scene, the DA said.
The DA said, that in 2019, one of their detectives had received a tip that led him to suspect one of four Fresno brothers as the killer. The evidence from '82 was then used in 2022 to confirm the killer's identity, the DA said.
Ramirez was arrested on Aug. 2, 2022, in the town of Makawao on the island of Maui. He was extradited later that same month.
He will be sentenced on May 12.