DNA match found for '88 slaying DNA match found for '88 slaying (July 01, 2005)

By Don Kazak

In a classic "cold case" investigation, the suspected murderer of Gretchen Burford -- a Palo Alto woman killed in Mountain View in 1988 -- has been identified as an inmate in a Texas prison, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office announced on June 23.

Burford, 49, an attorney and mother of three, was killed during an apparent robbery attempt. The case perplexed police and prosecutors, who theorized that a former client might have killed her.

But according to new DNA evidence, authorities say, her killer was a stranger who jumped into her car at an ATM machine and then stabbed her in the heart.

Tyrone Hamel, 39, has been identified as the suspect in the case, announced Chief Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu. Hamel was identified through DNA from sweat in a cap that he left behind in Burford's car. DNA science wasn't advanced enough in 1988 to identify him.

Hamel was convicted and sentenced to prison in 1988 -- the same year Burford was killed -- for two rape-robberies in Texas.

A warrant was issued the day of the announcement, meaning Hamel was put under arrest in the Texas prison, Sinunu said. Santa Clara County will then begin extradition proceedings to bring him to California to stand trial for Burford's murder.

Burford was killed on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 1988, when she drove to an ATM machine at a Wells Fargo Bank at the corner of California Avenue and El Camino Real. She had just remarried two weeks earlier.

Hamel allegedly held a knife on Burford and instructed her to withdraw cash from the ATM. Burford tried to get away by driving her car onto El Camino Real into another car. Witnesses said she got out of her car and shouted, "He stabbed me!" then fell and later died from the knife wound to the heart.

The assailant left behind a blue paisley cap. Sweat from the sweatband produced DNA, which was then put into a national database, identifying Hamel.

The investigation was conducted by the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit, which was formed by Sinunu earlier this year.
Don Kazak is a staff writer for the Palo Alto Weekly, the Voice's sister paper.

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