San Francisco police solved the 1978 murder case involving a 15-year-old girl with the arrest of a suspect from Colorado last week, KPIX reported.
Conifer, Colorado resident Mark Stanley Personette, 76, was arrested by the police on Thursday over his suspected involvement in Marissa Rold Harvey’s death.
The victim’s body was recovered last March 28, 1978, in Sutro Heights Park.
“For more than four decades, Marissa Harvey’s family members have been relentless advocates to bring her killer to justice, and we hope this development in the case begins to bring a measure of healing and closure they’ve been too long denied,” according to Police Chief Bill Scott.
(Photo: San Francisco Police Department)
The police department’s homicide detail, along with the San Francisco district attorney’s office, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI came together for an operation that took the suspect into custody.
The teen victim, who is from New York, went to San Francisco in 1978 for a family visit.
According to the police, she went to Golden Gate Park on March 27 and disappeared. The next day, she was found dead in Sutro Heights Park.
Scott said that San Francisco’s homicide detail investigated the murder at that time, and deployed the best technology available to solve the case.
(Family Photo via SFPD)
The case went cold but was opened again in October last year. This time, advanced investigative methods were used by the authorities specifically the police’s forensic sciences division.
Law enforcement agencies are being asked by San Francisco police to go over their cold cases on sexual assault victimizing minors to determine Personette’s involvement in other incidents. Personette’s booking photos were released by the police over the years.
San Francisco police department’s homicide detail Sgt. Alan Levy, Star #4216, is open to receiving any leads about the case through (415) 553-9245 or by email at alan.levy@sfgov.org.
