Suspect identified in decades-old Santa Cruz cold case homicide

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - A Santa Cruz family is receiving closure after authorities officially named a suspect in a woman's murder in 1976 on Thursday.

The backstory:

Santa Cruz sheriff's deputies responded to Aptos Village Park on May 28, 1976, over reports of a dead woman. There, the body of 25-year-old Karen Percifield was found. 

Officials ruled her death a homicide and collected forensic evidence, but for several decades were unable to develop any forensic leads for a suspect. 

Authorities named Richard Sommerhalder as a person of interest in their original investigation, but there was never enough evidence to arrest him for the homicide. 

Months later, Sommerhalder would be arrested for two other murders outside Santa Cruz County and serve eight and a half years in prison before being paroled and moving out of California. 

Dig deeper:

In 2019, the sheriff's office criminalists sent evidence to the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services for more testing. They were able to develop a male DNA profile, but their suspect wasn't in their DNA database. 

However, on Thursday, the sheriff's office said that the CA DOJ and Othram Laboratories, a Texas-based laboratory that works with law enforcement, identified Sommerhalder as the suspect in Percifield's murder.

Sommerhalder died in 1994, sheriff officials said. 

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What they're saying:

"While he was not held accountable for this tragic murder, we are proud to give the family of Karen Percifield this bit of closure," the sheriff's office said. 

"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. This case is a powerful example of how those advancements can give us the answers we’ve been searching for," added Santa Cruz Sheriff Chris Clark.

"Despite the passage of time and death of the perpetrator, the closure that solving this murder brings to the Percifield family is incredibly important," said District Attorney Jeff Rosell. 

Percifield daughter and sister spoke out about the finding, the sheriff's office said. 

"To the detectives, and forensic team, I appreciate them not giving up. This has been weighing on me my whole life, not having a memory of my mom and just wondering who it could have been, this just means so much. I’m just so grateful you didn’t give up," Percified's daughter said. 

Added Percifield's sister: "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. 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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