Investigators Seek Leads In 1985 Homicide

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Authorities are asking for the public’s help identifying the person responsible for the 1985 shooting death of 24-year-old Juan Mateo. Wearing only his socks and underwear, Mateo’s body was discovered along Niles Canyon Road in Alameda County, according to the sheriff’s office.

A DNA match in 2006 gave investigators the man’s name. More than three decades after his death, investigators with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office are revisiting the cold case seeking additional leads.

The murder of Tina Faelz in Pleasanton 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 while 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 and convicted.

COLD CASE pic.twitter.com/7ZwgDrDgcA
— Alameda County Sheriff (@ACSOSheriffs) November 28, 2018

Photo courtesy Renee Schiavone/ Patch