DNA evidence links suspect to 1986 killings in Fremont

Newly re-examined DNA evidence taken from beneath the fingernails of a victim in a notorious 1986 double homicide led Fremont police to charge a 57-year-old man with the slayings, authorities said Monday.

David Emery Misch, currently imprisoned for the 1989 killing of a woman near Hayward, will be arraigned this week in a case that baffled investigators for more than three decades.

Misch is accused of shooting and stabbing two young women before leaving their bodies on the side of the road, where they were found by a passing motorcyclist, police said. He was charged with two counts of murder.

“To be able to bring closure to the family and to the community, it’s huge,” said Fremont police Detective Jacob Blass, who specializes in cold cases. “It’s a good feeling. It’s been a long time coming.”

The bodies of Michelle Xavier, 18, and Jennifer Duey, 20, were discovered by the side of Mill Creek Road in Fremont early on Feb. 2,

1986. The two women had attended a birthday celebration the previous night and were last seen together in a 7-Eleven convenience store, according to a 1986 story in The Chronicle.

Xavier’s 1984 Pontiac Sunbird convertible was found in a shopping center parking lot about 6 miles away from where their bodies were found. The two victims reportedly became friends while attending Notre Dame High School in downtown San Jose. Both graduated from the small, all-girls school in 1984.

Suspects in their deaths were questioned, leads followed and a reward was offered, but the trail went cold, Blass said. The case left Fremont residents puzzled, alarmed and fearful.

Not long ago, bits of skin found under the fingernails of one of the victims were linked to Misch through DNA analysis that was not available at the time of the slayings, Blass said. That, along with other evidence and statements from the suspect, enabled police to announce they had solved the case.

Misch, of Hayward, was “known to be a local crook doing burglaries,” Blass said. Police said they did not believe Misch knew the victims prior to the slayings.

Misch was convicted of the 1989 murder of Margaret Ball, who was stabbed to death in her home in an unincorporated area near Hayward, said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Misch has been denied parole three times.

He was charged Friday with the murders of Xavier and Duey and will be brought from Folsom Prison to Alameda County for an arraignment this week, Blass said.

The breakthrough came after Blass’ position was created in 2016 to focus on cold cases and missing persons. He said the work of previous Fremont detectives made his breakthrough possible.

Cold cases, Blass said, are not like other police work.

“You’re the outside-the-box detective,” he said. “You’re taxed with thinking a different way. The technology breakthroughs are huge. They often take you down a different path.”

Attempts to contact Misch’s attorney were not successful.

Fremont Police Chief Richard Lucero said his department was “grateful to be able to provide this level of closure and consolation to the victims and our community.”

A statement from Xavier and Duey’s families, issued through Fremont police, thanked “all the officers and detectives who worked countless hours during the past 32 years — we know how deeply they care.”