Suspect in 1974 slaying kills self
New DNA evidence linked man to the murder of newlywed Arlis Perry in Stanford church, sheriff says
SAN JOSE » For four decades, wild theories have surrounded the mysterious and horrific killing of a 19-year-old newlywed found bloody and brutalized in the pews of Stanford Memorial Church— that she was a victim of a satanic cult or the notorious serial killer “Son of Sam.” It appears they were all wrong. On Thursday, former Stanford campus security guard Stephen Blake Crawford— who once told police that he locked up the church the night of Oct. 12, 1974, and discovered the body of Arlis Perry the next morning — shot himself in the head as police with new evidence against him closed in on his San Jose studio apartment.
Crawford’s death brings to a close one of the Bay Area’s most famous unsolved murder cases, where investigators tried for 43 years to find the person who killed the sweet young bride by ramming an ice pick into her skull and violating her body with altar candles. Semen was found on a church kneeler and a partial palm print was lifted from one of the candles, but neither were enough at the time to catch the killer. Crawford left Stanford two years later. In1992, however, hewas arrested and charged with stealing Western-style bronze
statues and books that had gone missing from campus in the 1970s.
“It’s been frustrating through the years that we could never get enough evidence to charge the suspect,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, who had started her career with the department shortly before Perry’s death. “It’s difficult for her family and it’s difficult for our department, but we finally have closure on this case.”
Like Sacramento’s Golden State killer apprehended in April decades after his alleged murderous spree, Crawford was ultimately identified by DNA evidence, Smith said. It was conclusive enough for deputies to obtain a search warrant, which they were executing at 9 a.m. Thursday morning at apartment No. 185 on the first floor of the time-worn Del Coronado apartment complex off Highway 85 on Camden Avenue.
Police had interviewed Crawford in recent weeks and when they identified themselves at his door Thursday morning, police say, he shot himself on the bed of his studio apartment.
The news shocked Perry’s 88-year- old mother, Jean Dykema, who said in a phone interview from her home in Bismarck, NorthDakota, that she is heartbroken the suspect wasn’t caught sooner.
Inthe last couple of years, she said, her husband, Marvin, “was possessed with wanting toknow” who killed their daughter. “It’s been horrible and my husband wanted to know so badly and he died three months ago.”
As a Christian woman, she said, “I know there is someone far greater that will punish this person. I don’t have to do that.”
Dykema’s daughter, Arlis, the youngest of their three children, was a cheerleader in high school and baked cakes for every fellow cheerleader and basketball player, she said. Her daughter’s husband, Bruce Perry, was her high school sweetheart. They married just before he started his sophmore year at Stanford in premed.
“When they said they were getting married, we weren’t too happy,” Dykema said, saying they were too young and California was too far. But they embraced the couple’s plans. “She was married eight weeks before. We had a big wedding and they left in the car and that’s the last we saw her.”
The night of her death, the young couple were walking to the mailbox at 11:30 p.m. and quarreled over checking the tire pressure on their car. Upset, she told her husband she was going to pray at the church, an iconic landmark building on the Stanford campus that would one day be the scene of Apple founder Steve Jobs’ memorial service. When she didn’t return by 3:30 a.m., Bruce Perry called police, who checked the church and found the doors locked. Crawford, the security guard, told police he found her partially hidden in a pew at 5:40 a.m.
Early suspicion focused on Crawford as well as Perry’s husband, who remarried and went on to become a renowned child trauma expert in Houston. Both apparently passed polygraph tests and the palm print wasn’t enough tomatch either man. Early on, Perry was cleared as a suspect. When contacted by this news organization, Perry’s daughter and another relative declined to comment.
Crawford was never cleared, Smith said. “There was just note nough evidence to charge him with a crime.”
Crawford’s brother and sister-in-law, also reached by phone, declined to comment.
In 1992, police arrested Crawford on suspicion of thefts in the 1970s of numerous American Indian artifacts including art objects and sculptures, as well as about 200 rare books, from the Stanford University department of anthropology and libraries.
At the Del Coronado apartments — a sprawling, salmon-colored stucco complex with several two-story buildings — some neighbors awoke Thursday morning to a loud bang. They said Crawford often wore a cowboy hat and walked with a cane. He had lived there since 1993 — a year after his arrest for stealing Western artwork — and kept to himself.
Ruby Francisco, who lives across the way from Crawford, said the idea that a neighbor could have been involved in such a brutal case was upsetting. “I’m really scared. I’m shook up,” she said. “My youngest is 14. She’s a girl.”
Apartment manager Leticia Gonzales said Crawford lived alone. He didn’t have a job, she said, and apparently lived on Social Security or retirement.
“He’s a good guy, never had any problems,” she said. “All of us are shocked that this has happened.”
Gonzales had been inside his apartment with a maintenance crew a number of times over the years, she said. It was minimally furnished. The only ornamentation, she said, was Western artwork.
“He had nice bronze statues of horses with Indians on them,” she said.
It’s unclear whether Stanford retrieved all the stolen bronzes in 1992. Stanford declined to comment Thursday. Detectives were continuing to search his apartment Thursday evening for clues to the killing.
Gonzales said she never saw any satanic symbols in the apartment that would suggest he was involved in the occult. Police say they knew of no evidence suggesting that either.
Over the decades, investigations took detectives to many places, including Attica State Prison in New York, where they interviewed infamous “Son of Sam” cult killer David Berkowitz, who hinted he might know Perry’s killer but who authorities concluded had nothing of value to their case.
The case has been the subject of books suggesting satanic cults were involved as well as podcasts.
The cold-case unit in the District Attorney’s Office, led by prosecutor Matt Braker, said the case was routinely reviewed by “fresh eyes” to gradually build a strong case against Crawford.
“This case has been looked at for years by members of the Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s office,” Braker said. “Multiple heads of our coldcase unit advanced the case.”
Braker said that continual effort was fueled by the desire to bring closure to Perry’s family.
“Their hope for justice never ended, and that’s why we never forget about a case like this,” he said Thursday.
DNA testing technology was not available in 1974. Over the years, the sheriff’s department continued to submit evidence to the crime lab, and— without giving details — Smith said that with modern technology, they finally solved the case.
“This is a case that eludes us no longer,” Smith said during the news conference Thursday evening. She stood in front of two enlarged photos on easels, one of a blond-haired-Perry with a big smile and the other of a balding Crawford with a beard. “Lead detective, Sgt. Richard Alanis, kept this picture of Arlis Perry with himas a constant reminder that her life and this case had value.”