42 years ago, Holly Ann Campiglia’s body was dumped in a Solano County cornfield. Her murder was unsolved for four decades, but her family never lost hope that one day, the killer would be found.
On Friday, Solano County Sheriff’s deputies arrested and booked 76-year-old Lee Hobbs, the suspected killer of Campiglia.
In August 1980, two field workers in unincorporated Dixon found Campiglia’s body in a cornfield along Sievers Road. A corner found out she was shot multiple times in the head and neck.
“The victim was initially listed as ‘Jane Doe.’ It was not until 1992, when the Coroner’s Office was contacted by the National Missing Persons Unit, that we learned that the victim was 21-year-old Holly Ann Campiglia,” Sheriff’s Office wrote.
The case went cold until 2021 when Campiglia’s family requested the Sheriff’s Office to review the case and resubmit evidence for DNA analysis.
The Serological Research Institute used advanced technology and found male DNA in the evidence. It was submitted into a database and it matched Hobbs.
Hobbs was already in jail and convicted for a 1975 Sacramento murder and for murdering 29-year-old Breda Ann Tucker in 2005.
Similar to Campiglia, Tucker was found with a bullet hole in her skull.
In 2000, Hobbs was also convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl.
Last week, an arrest warrant was issued to transfer Hobbs from state prison to the Solano County Jail to face new charges for Campiglia’s murder.
“Cold cases are particularly difficult cases to work because, sadly, time goes on which leads to gaps in memory. For example, the original deputy to investigate this case was Deputy Jose Cisneros, who was killed in the line-of-duty in 1985,” the Solano County Sheriff’s Office wrote Monday.
“We are grateful to the Campiglia family for their patience and assistance, to the labs whose new technology allowed additional testing of older evidence, and to the staff who worked tirelessly to help bring closure to a lifetime of waiting,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.
