1982 South Bay Cold Case Suspect Arrested: Cops

SUNNYVALE, CA — The suspect in the 1982 rape and killing of a 15-year-old Palo Alto girl was arrested in Hawaii, authorities said.

Gary Ramirez, 75, was arrested Aug. 2 at his Maui home, and once extradited will be arraigned on murder, kidnapping and rape charge, in connection with the killing of Karen Stitt nearly 40 years ago, the San Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.

Ramirez’s next court date in the extradition proceedings is scheduled for Wednesday.

If convicted, the former Fresno man faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Stitt had last been seen by her teenage boyfriend on an early September night walking toward a Sunnyvale bus stop. The next morning her naked body was found concealed behind a blood-stained cinderblock wall, the DA’s Office said.

She was stabbed 59 times in the attack.

“Behind every old murder file in every major police department, there is a person, heartbreak, and a mystery,” DA 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.”

Stitt had taken a bus from her Palo Alto home to visit her boyfriend in Sunnyvale on Sept. 2.

Around midnight, Stitt’s boyfriend walked her to the area of El Camino Real and Wolfe Rd. to take the bus back home. Her boyfriend, worried he would get grounded for being out after his curfew, ran home after watching Stitt walk toward the bus stop.

Her body was found about 100 yards from the bus stop the next morning.

Stitt’s boyfriend, long considered a suspect in her murder, was cleared based on the DNA evidence taken from the crime scene, the DA’s Office said.

A tip in early 2019 led to Ramirez’s arrest.

Matt Hutchison, a Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety detective, used the tip to determine that Stitt’s killer was likely one of four brothers from Fresno, the DA’s Office said.

Ramirez was identified as the likely source of blood and bodily fluid left at the crime scene in April, and DA’s Crime Lab confirmed that identification last week.

“The operation to arrest Ramirez took months of planning and was a coordinated effort involving Santa Clara County, Maui and federal law enforcement authorities,” the DA’s Office said in a statement.

“It was funded largely by a grant awarded to the DA’s Office in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute cold cases.”

Ramirez grew up and attended high school in Fresno before serving in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1970s. After leaving the military, Ramirez frequented or resided in the Bay Area Peninsula, San Francisco, San Diego, Colorado, and Hawaii.

Anyone with information about Gary Ramirez is asked to contact the DA’s Office Cold Case Prosecutor Rob Baker at rbaker@dao.sccgov.org.