John William Kelley, a convicted rapist, was charged last Friday with first-degree murder in the case of the teenager whose body was found dumped down a roadside embankment in remote San Mateo County, California, on December 6, 1986.
DailyMail reported that the 49-year-old man from Placerville, California, who did not enter a plea, faces the death penalty or life without parole if he is convicted.
San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies arrested a Placerville man Wednesday in connection with the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1986 in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County. Sheriff’s deputies arrested 49-year-old John William Kelley in Placerville, located in El Dorado County, after an interview and sufficient probable cause was established Wednesday, sheriff’s deputies said.
Kelley is being held on suspicion of murdering Annette Thur, whose body was found down an embankment off of Skyline Boulevard, north of Alpine Road, in unincorporated San Mateo County on Dec. 9, 1986, according to the sheriff’s office. The investigation into the incident determined that Thur had attended a party in Boulder Creek early the previous morning.
The breakthrough in the cold case came after investigators took a sample of seminal fluid from the crime scene and ran it through the state’s ever-expanding DNA database, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
A $217,000 federal grant allowed the fluid to be retested – and Kelley was found to be the match
“We are constantly resubmitting things because the database changes,” said San Mateo County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Schumaker.
Kelley has had several brushes with the law, according to Wagstaffe. He was convicted of rape in 1995 in Humboldt County and sentenced to six years in prison, he said.
Investigators in 1986 had no clue that Kelley existed, much less that he was involved in Thur’s death, said Wagstaffe, underlining the importance of DNA evidence in solving cold cases.
“But for DNA these types of crimes have been unsolved in our history,” he said to Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Kelley remains in San Mateo County jail without bail. He is scheduled back in court Aug. 28 to enter a plea.
