A 78-year-old Hawaiian man has been convicted of the brutal and long-unsolved murder of a teenage Palo Alto girl more than four decades ago, according to the Santa Clara County DA’s office.
Gary Ramirez pleaded no contest today (Feb. 24) to the 1982 slaying of 15-year-old Karen Stitt.
Ramirez faces life in prison when he is sentenced on May 12, 2025, in Department 38 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, for Stitt’s first-degree murder.
Stitt was last seen by her boyfriend walking at night toward a Sunnyvale bus stop. The next morning her naked body was found concealed behind a blood-stained cinderblock wall. The Palo Alto girl had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said that from 1982 until 2022, a continuous line of detectives at Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety put their heart and soul into investigating this infamous crime.
“Today I am thinking of a young woman whose life and future were torn from her,” DA Rosen said. “Karen Stitt would have been 57 years old today. 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 and as a message from all of us in law enforcement to our community: We don’t give up. Ever.”
On the evening of Sept. 2, 1982, Stitt took a bus from her home in Palo Alto to Sunnyvale to visit her boyfriend. Around midnight, Stitt’s boyfriend walked her to the area of El Camino Real and Wolfe Road to take the bus back home. Her boyfriend, worried he would get grounded for being out after his curfew, ran home after watching Stitt walk toward the bus stop.
Her body was found about 100 yards from the bus stop the next morning. The killer left both his blood and bodily fluid on Stitt.
Beginning in early 2019, Sunnyvale Detective Matt Hutchison used a tip to determine that Ms. Stitt’s killer was likely one of four brothers from Fresno. In late April 2022, Ramirez was identified as the likely source of blood and bodily fluid left at the crime scene. The Santa Clara County DA’s Crime Lab confirmed the identification.
• Related story: Man arrested in murder of Palo Alto girl 40 years ago
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