The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that it has identified the suspect responsible for the 1976 murder of 25-year-old Karen Percifield, nearly 50 years after her body was discovered near Aptos Village Park.
During the initial investigation, a man named Richard Sommerhalder was named as a person of interest, but investigators were never able to gather enough evidence to arrest him, and the case went cold. However, Sommerhalder was arrested for two other Santa Cruz County murders in September 1976, and served more than eight years in prison before being paroled. He moved out of state and died in 1994.
Through familial DNA testing, genetic genealogy and with the help of the Department of Justice and forensic genealogy company Othram Laboratories, detectives have confirmed that Sommerhalder was the suspect responsible for Percifield’s murder.
“No matter how much time has passed, we will never stop seeking the truth. Advances in DNA technology continue to provide new opportunities to deliver justice and closure to victims and their families,” said Sheriff Chris Clark in a news release. “This case is a powerful example of how those advancements can give us the answers we’ve been searching for.”
In the release, Percifield’s daughter and sister expressed their gratitude and relief that the culprit has been identified. The sheriff’s office did not give the relatives’ names.
“This has been weighing on me my whole life, not having a memory of my mom and just wondering who it could have been,” Percifield’s daughter said in the media release. “This just means so much. I’m just so grateful you didn’t give up.”
“It’s nice to know this is finally not an open case, even though it was closed in my mind. It just proves that DNA is a good vehicle to solve these things and put things to rest,” said Percifield’s sister. “I was so young then and wasn’t equipped to understand everything and I’m just so grateful it’s finally over.”
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