Photo: Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office
The suspect in the 1974 murder of a 19-year-old woman found half-naked in the back of a California church killed himself as authorities arrived at his home to execute a search warrant, PEOPLE confirms.
Steve Blake Crawford shot himself in the head as Santa Clara deputies were closing in on him in their investigation of the killing of Arlis Perry, the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office announced at a press conference Thursday.
Perry was found half-naked, sexually assaulted and killed inside Stanford University’s Memorial Church in October 1974.
Crawford, a former security guard at the university, was a suspect in the case for years and had once told authorities he had locked up the church the night of Perry’s murder.
“It’s been frustrating throughout the years that we could never get enough evidence to charge the suspect,” Sheriff Laurie Smith said at the press conference. “It’s difficult for her family, it’s difficult on the department, but we finally have closure on this case.”
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“[She was] found nude from the waist down, she had been molested with a three-foot candlestick. Another candlestick had been pushed up her blouse. She had also been beaten,” according to the paper.
Courtesy Santa Clara County Sheriff
Police connected him to the crime through DNA evidence, Smith said, and the connection allowed authorities to obtain a search warrant. On Thursday morning, when authorities arrived at Crawford’s apartment to execute the warrant, he shot himself on the bed.
Speaking to theMercury News,Perry’s mother, Jean Dykema, 88,said she wished her husband, Perry’s father, was alive to hear the news. He died three months ago but was “possessed” with finding out who murdered their daughter, Dykema said.
source: people.com
