25-02-2025
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.'
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