SAN JOSE, Calif. — More than four decades after the savage rape and murder of 15-year-old Karen Stitt shocked the community of Sunnyvale, California, her killer has finally been brought to justice. Gary Ramirez, now 78, was sentenced to life in prison Monday for the 1982 crime, bringing a painful chapter to a close for Stitt’s loved ones and the city haunted by her death.
Ramirez, a resident of Maui, Hawaii, was identified in 2022 through advanced DNA technology. He pleaded no contest earlier this year to charges stemming from the sexual assault and stabbing of the teen, who was attacked while walking alone to a bus stop after visiting her boyfriend. Ramirez received a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years, though given his age, he is expected to die behind bars.
Karen Stitt’s case had remained unsolved for decades, despite exhaustive efforts by local authorities. It wasn’t until 2021 that a breakthrough came when a detective received a tip linking the crime to one of four brothers from Fresno. Investigators used forensic genealogy to identify Ramirez as the likely source of DNA evidence collected from Stitt’s body and the crime scene. In April 2022, a match was confirmed, and Ramirez was arrested.
On the night of September 2, 1982, Stitt took a bus from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale to visit her boyfriend. She left his house around midnight, intending to return home alone. Her boyfriend, afraid of getting into trouble for staying out late, didn’t accompany her. The next morning, a truck driver discovered Stitt’s body in bushes near a cinderblock wall by the bus stop. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times. Blood stains on the wall and other biological evidence pointed to the brutality of the crime.
Ramirez remained unidentified for years, while Karen’s boyfriend was ruled out as a suspect in 2000 after DNA testing excluded him. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office praised the decades of dedication by investigators with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, calling it the work of “a continuous line of detectives putting their hearts and souls into solving an infamous crime.”
At Monday’s sentencing, friends and relatives of Karen Stitt gathered in court to honor her memory and voice their enduring pain. According to prosecutors, the family expressed “continued grief and anger about this terrible crime,” emphasizing that “she has never been forgotten.”
Stitt’s murder was one of California’s most haunting unsolved crimes, a reminder of the vulnerability of young women and the enduring trauma inflicted by sexual violence. With the sentencing of Ramirez, law enforcement and Stitt’s family finally received the long-awaited closure they had pursued for over 40 years.
