Latest news with #KarenStitt
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Daily Record
Teenager raped and stabbed 59 times after being left at bus stop by boyfriend
Karen Stitt was just 15. A teenager was murdered after being left at a bus stop to make her way home by her boyfriend. Karen Stitt was raped and stabbed 59 times, suffering knife wounds to the neck, abdomen and chest. Her body was found by a delivery driver in the early hours of the following morning. Her naked body was behind a blood-stained, four-foot high cinder block wall near a restaurant, just 100 yards from the bus stop she'd been left at. Her wrists had been tied with her shirt and her jacket was tied around her left ankle. A hat she was wearing - which was her boyfriend's and had the logo for rock band Rush on it - was lying nearby. Investigators discovered that the leaves and dirt around her feet were disturbed as if she'd kicked out – suggesting she was still alive when her body was moved there. Karen's September 2, 1982 murder was a huge shock to the community in the Californian city of Palo Alto, the Californian city of Palo Alto, The Mirror reports. Karen had only been in Palo Alto for a few months, but she'd already settled into a new school and had made lots of friends. The 15-year-old was friendly and upbeat, with a big smile and an outgoing personality, so it wasn't hard for people to like her. She had moved thousands of miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the West Coast. Karen, her older sister, brother, and father made the move after the death of her mother. She was a student at the Palo Alto High School, where she'd built a social circle and had a boyfriend, David Woods. He lived 10 miles away in Sunnyvale, but Karen had already confidently worked out the bus route. On the evening of Thursday, September 2, 1982, Karen took the bus to see David. They played some video games at a 7-Eleven then went on to a mini-golf course. Just after midnight, Karen's boyfriend dropped her off at the bus stop where she was planning to get the route 22 back home. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. He was worried about getting into trouble with his parents for being late back, so he ran home and left Karen waiting. It was a busy road with restaurants and bars. Karen was dressed in a leather jacket, striped shirt, trousers and her boyfriend's Rush baseball hat. She was never seen alive again. The pictures of her Karen that were released by the police would become recognisable to so many across the US. The beautiful, shaggy-haired blonde teenager was dressed in red, smiling happily on a beach. She was a young woman full of life, frozen in time. It was unthinkable to imagine her final terrifying moments. A late-night worker saw an old-fashioned truck parked near where Karen's body was found, and DNA was also at the scene. There was blood on Karen's jacket and bodily fluids found during the autopsy, but there were no matches on any of the national crime DNA databases. Karen's boyfriend David Woods was initially considered a suspect, but was eventually cleared by forensic analysis, and the case ran cold. Over the years, the case was passed down through detectives. There was a determination to solve the mystery of the teenager who was killed, and keeping her story in the public eye eventually paid off. In 2019, police received a tip-off that Karen's killer was one of four brothers from Fresno, California, about 160miles from Sunnyvale. A new investigation began, supported by a Department of Justice grant to help with cold cases. Detectives started working with an expert in genetic genealogy to try to identify Karen's killer. By comparing a DNA sample from one of the brothers' children to the DNA found at the crime scene, they found their killer: Gary Gene Ramirez. On 2 August 2022, Ramirez, 75, was arrested at his home on the island of Maui, Hawaii. He simply uttered, 'Oh, my gosh.' Ramirez had grown up in Fresno and attended high school there. He served in the US Air Force in the early 1970s and, after leaving, he moved around California – including the Bay Area Peninsula where Karen had lived. Eventually he settled in Hawaii where he did several odd jobs, including working as an exterminator. No one suspected that the quiet man could be a killer. He had no criminal record, had been married twice and had two children, and yet he was responsible for one of the most infamous crimes on the West Coast. Ramirez was brought to Santa Clara County to face trial for murder, rape and kidnapping. For Karen's family, there was relief at finally getting some answers, but it also opened old wounds. It had been such a painful chapter in their lives. Sadly, Karen's father and sister died before getting justice. In May this year, Ramirez pleaded no contest to the murder. At the sentencing, he appeared with a walking stick and long, grey hair. He was an elderly man but there was no escaping the savage way he'd attacked Karen – raping and stabbing her repeatedly. In court, Ramirez, now 78, sat motionless and listened to impact statements. 'Since Karen was brutally taken from us, there have been many unanswered questions – 'why' being the biggest,' said Karen's best friend Tracy Lancaster, who was at school with her. She added that they were both just kids at the time and no one deserved what happened that night. Another friend, Michael Calhoun, said, 'Just because you've been caught, finally, and you will start serving your sentence – your punishment for your brutally gruesome crime – there will still never be closure. Karen is gone. We will never get her back.' David Woods, who had gone on that last date with Karen, was there with his wife. He told the court, 'His heinous crime, that ended her life in such a horrific way, has caused deep heartache and continued suffering for the many that loved Karen Stitt.' Ramirez was sentenced to life in prison, only eligible for parole after 25 years. Finally, the killer was behind bars. Karen would be 58 years old today. Her tragic death was over 40 years ago but she has never been forgotten. While it was frustrating for Karen's loved ones to know that Ramirez had been able to live his life for so long as a free man, they have comfort knowing he will never be able to hurt anyone else again.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Hawaii cold case killer is handed ultimate sentence for murdering teen girl in 1982
A Hawaiian man has been sentenced to life in prison more than 40 years after he brutally murdered a teenage girl. Gary Ramirez, 78, will not be eligible for parole until he is 103 years old after he pleaded no contest to the 1982 murder of 15-year-old Karen Stitt. The Palo Alto teenager had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times, with her brutally battered body dumped behind a cinderblock wall in town. Stitt's boyfriend had last seen her about midnight September 2, walking toward a bus stop in Sunnyvale, planning to return home to Palo Alto. He ran home after watching her approach the bus stop, because he was out after his curfew and feared his parents would ground him for being home late. Her body was found 100 yards from the bus stop the next morning. They killer's blood and bodily fluid were found on her body. Between Stitt's death in 1982 and the identification of Ramirez as her likely killer, a host of detectives worked tirelessly trying to investigate the tragic crime. In 2019, Sunnyvale Detective Matt Hutchison received a tip tracing her killer to a family of four brothers in Fresno. By April 2022, Ramirez had been identified as the likely killer and his DNA had been traced to that left behind at the crime scene. The 78-year-old Hawaiian man living in Maui was arrested at his home and charged with murder, kidnapping and rape. Hutchison said when he arrested Ramirez, the man was so shocked he could barely say more than just 'Oh my gosh.' Ramirez grew up in Fresno and frequently visited or lived in different areas along the west coast, including the Bay Area, San Diego, Colorado and Hawaii. Ramirez, a former bug exterminator, had no previous criminal record according to police. 'Over 40 years ago, Karen Stitt lost her life, but she was not forgotten,' District Attorney Jeff Rosen said.
CBS News
13-05-2025
- CBS News
Man sentenced to life in 1982 cold case murder of Palo Alto teen Karen Stitt
The man who was convicted in the 1982 cold case murder of 15-year-old Karen Stitt will spend the rest of his life in prison, prosecutors in Santa Clara County said. District Attorney Jeff Rosen's office announced that 78-year-old Gary Ramirez was sentenced Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. Prosecutors said many of Stitt's family and friends attended the sentencing hearing. Ramirez pled no contest to Stitt's murder on Feb. 24. He was arrested on the island of Maui in Hawaii in 2022, where he had been living at the time. Gary Gene Ramirez August 2022 booking photo, how he appeared approximately 40 years ago. Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety "Over 40 years ago, Karen Stitt lost her life, but she was not forgotten," Rosen said in a statement. "Today, thanks to a dedicated detective, a persistent prosecutor, and our Crime Lab, the person responsible is behind bars." Stitt was a student at Palo Alto High School and had recently moved to the South Bay from Pittsburgh. On Sep. 2, 1982, Stitt had taken a bus from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale to visit her boyfriend. Around midnight, Stitt was waiting for a bus home near El Camino Real and Wolfe Road. The next morning, her body was found about 100 yards away from the bus stop. Karen Stitt, a 15-year-old student at Palo Alto High School, was found murdered in Sunnyvale in Sep. 1982. Gary Ramirez was convicted of Stitt's murder in 2025 and was sentenced to life in prison. Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office Prosecutors said Stitt had been sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times. Despite investigating all potential leads, the case went cold for decades. In 2019, detective Matt Hutchison of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety used a tip to determine that Stitt's killer was likely one of four brothers from Fresno, prosecutors said. In April 2022, the DA's office said Ramirez was identified as the likely source of blood and bodily fluid left at the crime scene. The DA's crime lab confirmed the identification. "I believe we have a responsibility to these victims no matter how old the case is," Hutchison said following Ramirez's arrest.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man, 78, sentenced in vicious 1982 rape, stabbing death of California teen
In 1982, 15-year-old Karen Stitt's naked body was discarded near a bus stop in Sunnyvale after she was brutally raped and stabbed and finally, more than 40 years later, her killer has been sentenced. The Palo Alto teen had spent the evening with her 17-year-old boyfriend, who, after a night of walking around together, left her at the bus stop around midnight so she could get back home, and he wouldn't miss his curfew. A truck driver spotted Stitt's body, bloody and tied up, in the bushes near a bloodstained cinder-block wall just before 11 a.m. the following day, officials with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said in a news release. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times in the neck, stomach, chest and back, and despite the killer leaving both his blood and semen on the teen's body, police were unable to implicate anyone in the gruesome murder and the case went cold. In the years that followed, investigators used DNA technology to create a profile from the bloodstain found on the wall and the bodily fluids on Stitt that exonerated her boyfriend, but did not match anyone else in the national DNA crime database, the L.A. Times reported. In 2019, Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Detective Matt Hutchinson used a tip that the teen's killer was likely one of four brothers from Fresno and launched a genealogical investigation to find a family member that matched DNA from the crime scene. Some three years later, in April 2022, Gary Ramirez, now 78, a resident of Maui, was identified as the suspect after his daughter provided a DNA sample to investigators. Arrests made in 'sextortion' scam tied to California teen's suicide Four months later, he was arrested at his Maui home, extradited to Santa Clara County and charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and being armed with a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony. In February, the 78-year-old pleaded no contest to the 1982 slaying and on May 12 was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. 'Over 40 years ago, Karen Stitt lost her life, but she was not forgotten,' District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. 'Today, thanks to a dedicated detective, a persistent prosecutor, and our Crime Lab, the person responsible is behind bars.' Several of Karen Stitt's friends and family reportedly attended Monday's sentencing, where they were able to share the pain that the long-unresolved case continues to cause. 'Justice is a difficult thing,' Robin Morris, Stitt's aunt, said in an interview, according to The Times. 'He's lived his entire life, and my niece didn't get that privilege.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
Man convicted of murdering 15-year-old Palo Alto girl
(KRON) — A Hawaiian man was convicted Monday of brutally murdering a 15-year-old Palo Alto girl, Karen Stitt, prosecutors said. Stitt was sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times near a Sunnyvale bus stop in 1982. Her killer remained at large for decades. On Monday, Gary Ramirez pleaded no contest to the 1982 slaying. Ramirez, 78, of Maui, will face a life prison sentence when he is sentenced on May 12 in Santa Clara County Superior court. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, 'Karen Stitt would have been 57 years old today. Today I am thinking of a young woman whose life and future were torn from her.' Stitt was last seen alive on the night of September 2, 1982 walking toward a bus stop. Her teenaged boyfriend walked her to the area of El Camino Real and Wolfe Road because she was going to catch a bus in Sunnyvale back to her home in Palo Alto. 'Her boyfriend, worried he would get grounded for being out after his curfew, ran home after watching Ms. Stitt walk toward the bus stop,' prosecutors wrote. The next morning, the girl's naked body was found hidden behind a blood-stained cinderblock wall. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed dozens of times. Her lifeless body was found just 100 yards from the bus stop. 'The killer left both his blood and bodily fluid on Ms. Stitt,' prosecutors wrote. Rosen said that from 1982 until 2022, a continuous line of detectives at Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety put their 'heart and soul' into investigating the case. Beginning in 2019, SDPS Detective Matt Hutchison used a tip to determine that Stitt's killer was likely one of four brothers from Fresno. In 2022, Ramirez was identified as the likely source of blood and bodily fluid left at the crime scene. The Santa Clara County DA's Crime Lab confirmed the identification. Rosen said, 'Her murder was solved by forensic science, a remarkably stubborn detective, and a determined prosecutor. May their efforts serve as our memorial to this innocent teen and as a message from all of us in law enforcement to our community: We don't give up. Ever.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
