Fatal Shooting Victims Were Newlyweds: Chilling Alameda County Cold Case Spotlighted 40 Years Later

SUNOL, CA — The last time anyone saw newlyweds Alvin and Mary Prater was during a family picnic in August of 1974. One week later, their bodies were found dumped together on old Vallecitos Road in Sunol. Both had been shot in the head, and the homicide case remains a mystery.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help solving the case and released information about the Praters as part of its ongoing efforts to turn up leads on unsolved deaths. Anyone with information is asked to call the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Homicide Unit at 510-667-3661.

The murder of Tina Faelz was of the most infamous cold cases ever solved in Alameda County. Unsolved until 2011, interest still lingers around the tragic 1984 murder that took the teen’s life and eventually put Steven Carlson behind bars. Carlson, a former Pleasanton resident, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 in the brutal stabbing death. However, in January 2017, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel said the conviction must be reduced to second-degree murder because prosecutors hadn't proved the element of premeditation and deliberate intent needed for a first-degree murder conviction.

Faelz, a freshman at Foothill High School, died after suffering 44 stab wounds when she was on her way home from school on the afternoon of April 5, 1984. Her body was found in a drainage ditch adjacent to Interstate Highway 680, east of the high school. Carlson lived nearby on Lemonwood Way.

The case was cold for more than two decades, but in 2011, authorities announced that DNA investigations begun in 2007 linked a spot of blood found on Faelz's purse, which was found hanging from a tree at the homicide scene, to Carlson. Carlson, who then had a criminal record that included convictions for drug crimes and a lewd act on a 13-year-old girl, was arrested and charged with the murder. He was tried as an adult.

Read More:

• Steven Carlson Convicted of First-Degree Murder of Tina Faelz
• Steven Carlson Gets 26 Years to Life in Prison
• Tina Faelz' Family Reflects, Says Sadness Killed Mom Some 30 Years Later
• Mother of Murder Victim Dies Same Day as Murder Trial Was to Begin

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