Police Request Help After 3-Year Anniversary of Unsolved Murder

San Rafael police are again asking the public's help in finding the person who murdered Ashley Yamauchi three years ago.

Yamauchi, 33, of Greenbrae, was sexually assaulted and died of asphyxiation on Dec. 16, 2008.Her partially clad body was found by a downtown business owner in the parking lot behind the Fourth Street Tavern at 711 Fourth St. in San Rafael.

A vigil held by family and friends will be held tonight in her memory, the Marin Independent Journal reports. It will begin at 6:30p.m. at the .

The mother of an 8-year-old daughter, Yamauchi worked as a nanny for a San Rafael family.

She was at the tavern the previous evening watching Monday Night Football and was last seen alive as she left through the back door with a man she met at the bar, San Rafael police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.

A $50,000 reward was offered by the California Governor's Reward Program a year ago for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in a California court of the suspect or suspects charged with the murder, Rohrbacher said.

The reward did result in a few new leads, but nothing substantial, Rohrbacher said.

Police are hopeful the reward will prompt new witnesses or new information that leads to an arrest, Rohrbacher said.

During the past year detectives have been working with cold case specialists and criminal profilers to develop additional investigative leads, Rohrbacher said.

DNA evidence has been obtained but has not yet led to an identifiable suspect, Rohrbacher said.

"The quest to identify and arrest the suspect in this senseless killing remains foremost on the minds of San Rafael detectives. The San Rafael Police Department is willing to make every effort necessary to solve this case and we need the public's help," Rohrbacher said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Ashley Yamauchi tip line at (415) 458-2399 of email findashleyskiller@srpd.org.

Bay City News Serivce contributed to this report.