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Over 40 years after he raped and murdered 15-year-old Palo Alto High School student Karen Stitt, Gary Ramirez, 78, was convicted of first degree murder and will serve life in prison in Santa Clara County after he is sentenced on May 12, according to a Santa Clara County press release.
Ramirez pleaded no contest and will serve his time in state prison, although it is unknown exactly where yet, said Deputy District Attorney Barbara Cathcart.
Stitt, who had only recently moved to Palo Alto with her dad and brother at the time, profoundly affected the community, who remembered her “big smile,” “rock T-shirts,” and sudden absence, which left locals in fear of a suspect at large.
On the night of Sept. 2, 1982, Stitt took a bus from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale to visit her boyfriend. The couple met at a convenience store near the intersection of El Camino Real and Wolfe Road, walked to miniature golf course Golfland, then walked several blocks away to Ponderosa Elementary School.
Around midnight, Stitt’s boyfriend walked her to El Camino Real and Wolfe Road and watched her walk to her bus stop, but quickly ran home to avoid being grounded for staying out past his curfew, according to the county press release.
The next morning, Stitt’s body was found naked with the killer’s blood and bodily fluids behind a blood-stained cinderblock wall – she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times about 100 yards away from her bus stop, according to the statement.
Kicked leaves and dirt indicated that Stitt was still alive once her killer left, according to previous Weekly reporting.
While Stitt’s boyfriend was long considered a suspect, he was cleared by DNA technology – technology that would eventually lead cops to her killer.
In 2019, detectives began using modern DNA tech in the cold case, and two years later, a genealogist identified the perpetrator as one of four Fresno brothers, but didn’t know which one, according to the Weekly’s reporting. That’s when Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Detective Matt Hutchison, who is renowned for cracking cold cases, got to work.
Hutchison scoured newspaper obituaries to social media posts to track down the family before he found a grandchild of the brothers, Ramirez, on Facebook. On April 8, 2022, Hutchison obtained Ramirez’s DNA, which was confirmed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Crime Lab.
“A wound was reopened, but somehow I felt relief and peace,” said Stitt’s aunt, Robin Stitt Morris, in response to the arrest.
From 1982 to 2022, a continuous line of Sunnyvale detectives put “their heart and soul,” into Stitt’s case, wrote District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a statement.
“Karen Stitt would have been 57 years old today,” Rosen wrote. “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.”
