The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the help of the public to solve a Sunnyvale cold case with the launching of a new page on its website.
The web page will periodically feature a cold case, a violent crime that went unsolved over the years.
The first cold case to be featured is the 1982 Sunnyvale homicide of Karen Stitt, a 15-year-old Palo Alto teenager whose body was found near a bus stop in Sunnyvale. She had been stabbed close to 60 times, according to the district attorney’s office.
“Every year our office seeks justice for thousands of crime victims in Santa Clara County,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “We haven’t forgotten Karen, and we want your help to find her killer.”
Stitt was originally from Pittsburgh before coming to the Bay Area. She attended Palo Alto High and rode the El Camino Real bus routes to and from her boyfriend’s place in Sunnyvale.
On Sept. 4, 1982, Stitt and her boyfriend were out late after school, according to the district attorney’s office. Around 12:30 a.m., her boyfriend dropped her off near a bus stop at the corner of El Camino Real and S. Wolfe Road. She routinely took the 22 bus back to Palo Alto and her father’s house.
It was there that she disappeared.
A delivery man found her the next day, thrown over a 4-foot wall near the former Honey Bee Restaurant. Her naked body was bound with her own clothing, and she had been stabbed nearly 60 times.
Some clues have surfaced over the years, the district attorney’s office reported. A machinist working late that night noticed an unusual and out of place truck near the scene of the crime. It was white, an old-fashioned panel truck with a stripe along its side and had a rectangular bumper sticker on its bumper. It was parked near where Stitt’s body was later found with its parking lights on.
Anyone who recalls that truck or anything that relates to the murder is asked to contact district attorney investigator Michael Brown at 408.808.3760.
For more information, visit sccgov.org.
