More than 40 years after a 15-year-old girl from Palo Alto was found dead and all tied up and covered in blood by a bus stop, a man has been put behind bars for the heinous crime. Gary Ramirez, who is 78 years old and hails from Hawaii, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after he pleaded no contest to the brutal rape and murder of Karen Stitt in 1982. The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office made the announcement, stating that Ramirez could be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
The victim, Karen Stitt, was sexually assaulted and stabbed a shocking 59 times in various parts of her body, as stated in the medical examiner’s report. The perpetrator left behind his blood and semen on her body, but authorities at the time were unable to identify a suspect, causing the case to go cold for many years. It wasn’t until new DNA technology and a tip from the community that investigators were able to track down Ramirez at his residence in Maui in 2022. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen expressed relief that justice was finally served, highlighting the dedicated efforts of the detective, prosecutor, and crime lab that led to Ramirez’s arrest.
Karen spent her final moments walking around Sunnyvale with her 17-year-old boyfriend before he left her at a bus stop so she could make her way back to Palo Alto. The boyfriend later confessed to the police that he felt guilty for leaving her alone but didn’t want to face consequences from his parents for being out late. A truck driver discovered her lifeless body the next morning in the bushes below a cinder-block wall near the bus stop. The scene indicated that she had put up a fight even after being abandoned there. Through advancements in DNA testing, detectives were able to create a suspect profile based on evidence found at the crime scene, ruling out the boyfriend as a potential suspect. However, the case went cold once more as the DNA profile did not match anyone in the national crime database until 2019, when a tip pointed investigators towards Ramirez as a potential suspect. After obtaining a DNA sample from Ramirez’s daughter, he was officially charged with murder, rape, and kidnapping, among other offenses. Ramirez pleaded no contest in February and was sentenced to life in prison in August. Karen’s friends and family members attended the hearing to express their ongoing grief and ensure that she is never forgotten. Justice may have been served, but the pain and loss remain for those who loved her.
