San Mateo Police Crack 32-Year-Old Attempted Murder Cold Case

SAN MATEO, CA — DNA technology helped San Mateo law enforcement crack open a gruesome cold case involving an attempted murder that occurred more than 30 years ago.

The investigation remains open, as police are concerned there may have been additional victims.

San Mateo Police Department detectives and investigators from the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office arrested John Harris Jr., 55, in Manteca on Wednesday on charges of attempted murder, with other charges pending because of complications under the statute of limitations.

Harris is being held at the San Mateo County Jail on $500,000 bail.

It is unclear whether Harris is represented by a lawyer. A conviction for first-degree attempted murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Harris was charged in connection with a crime that took place on March 4, 1989. At 4:15 a.m., a person with his face covered by a bandana entered a woman's apartment in the 3100 block of Casa De Campo, climbed into her bed and put a knife to her throat. He then sexually assaulted, strangled and stabbed the woman before slitting her throat, police said.

The woman survived and called the police after persuading the man to leave the apartment. Investigators questioned a number of people at the time, but could not determine a suspect.

“It’s one of those cases that just stays in your mind just because of how horrific it was and how despicable an act it was,” said Kevin Raffaelli, a district attorney inspector who worked on the investigation at the time with the San Mateo Police Department.

In a briefing Thursday — flanked by a blown up mug shot of Harris and another picture of the suspect from when he was younger — San Mateo Police Chief Ed Barberini praised authorities who worked the case in 1989 for collecting and preserving evidence from the crime scene, allowing it to be resubmitted for DNA processing several times over the past three decades as technology has advanced.

Last December, investigators found a match: Harris, who would have been in his early 20s at the time of the crime. They surveilled him over the course of a month in the Central Valley region before taking him into custody this week.

“To have [evidence] available to come back again and again as technology advances, it gives us a better shot. It helps to level the playing field with these types of things,” Barberini said. “The DNA piece was the key.”

Authorities didn’t elaborate on the specifics of how they traced the evidence to Harris.

Harris was working for a company that installs surveillance equipment in Manteca at the time of his arrest, police said. He lived in the same San Mateo neighborhood as the victim in 1989, but did not know her, police said.

Harris is also believed to have moved around the Bay Area’s counties, spending time in San Francisco, Alameda and San Joaquin. Authorities said he lived in Tucson, Arizona, last year.

The police are asking the public to come forward if they have any information.

The case was reopened recently at the request of Raffaeli, who praised the woman at the center of the case for remaining steadfast.

“I wouldn’t classify her as a victim,” Raffaeli said. “She’s a survivor. She has done a standup job throughout these years. She has come to the police department during my career here and asked us several times through various years to run DNA, to do what we can. She never let it go.”

Anyone with information should contact the San Mateo Police Department’s Investigation Bureau at 650-522-7650. Anonymous tips can be submitted to http://tinyurl.com/SMPDTips or by calling 650-522-7676.