Woman's 1996 Cold Case Death In Sonoma County Solved

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Family members of an East Bay woman whose body was found in 1996 on the side of a Sonoma County roadway now have closure thanks to the dogged work of local detectives.

The 25-year-old cold case involving the killing of Michelle Marie Hinojos Veal, 32, of Union City, has been solved, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday.

DNA linked Jack Alexander Bokin as the suspect in her death.

Veal's nude body was found July 15, 1996, along Stony Point Road, north of West Railroad Avenue in unincorporated Sonoma County, by a survey crew who was working in the area.

The autopsy showed Veal had multiple skull fractures and a broken neck, consistent with blunt force head trauma, Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Juan Valencia said.

"At the time of the murder, evidence was collected, and Violent Crime detectives conducted an extensive investigation; all leads were exhausted," Valencia said. "Despite their best efforts, the investigation went cold."

Then, in April 2021, detectives resubmitted evidence to the Serological Research Institute — SERI — for biological testing using today’s technology.

Cold cases are just as crucial to sheriff's detectives as current cases, and the sheriff's office is constantly reviewing them, looking for new leads, Valencia said.

Several months later, on Jan. 18, the U.S. Department of Justice notified the detectives that the DNA evidence they submitted had produced a "CODIS hit" — CODIS being the Combined Index System of the United States DNA database created and maintained by the FBI.

"SERI laboratory had developed a DNA profile from the evidence that had been submitted," Valencia said. "A DNA match came back to that of Bokin."

Shortly after receiving the information, detectives learned Bokin had been an inmate at a nearby state prison, the California Department of Corrections Medical Facility in Vacaville, where he died Dec. 4, 2021.

In 2000, Bokin was sentenced to 231 years in state prison after he was arrested in October 1997 by the San Francisco Police Department and convicted of kidnapping, kidnapping with the intent to commit rape, rape of a victim incapable of consent, rape by force/fear, mayhem, aggravated mayhem, two counts of oral copulation of a person under 14 years of age, false imprisonment and attempted murder.

"We know that every cold case represents long-awaited answers for the family and friends of victims," he said. "Thanks to the hard work of our detectives and our law enforcement partners, we are now able to bring a measure of closure and healing to Michelle Marie Veal's family."