After 32 years, man charged with Hayward girl’s murder
Authorities link convicted killer to widely publicized 1988 disappearance of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht
Police believe they finally have solved the mystery of who abducted and killed a 9-year- old Hayward girl who had gone to a neighborhood grocery store more than three decades ago, one of three Bay Area girls whose disappearances within months of each other rattled the region and frightened parents everywhere.
Authorities announced Monday that a man previously convicted of murder and awaiting trial on a double murder in Fremont is suspected of killing Michaela Garecht, who vanished just days before Thanksgiving in 1988 and whose body was never found.
The man, David Misch, 59, was charged with murder Monday by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. The charge includes two special circumstances — that the slaying happened in the course of a kidnapping and that Misch had been convicted of a previous murder.
Michaela’s kidnapping drew national attention, and her photo was featured on milk cartons. “America’s Most Wanted” and other television programs aired reports about the case, each one bringing in new calls from people eager to share rumors, speculation and possible clues.
The incident caused a wave of fear and anxiety in the Bay Area. It happened just months after 7-year-old Amber Swartz went missing in Pinole and months before 13-year- old ice skater Ilene Misheloff disappeared while walking home from school in Dublin.
“Her kidnapping devastated her family and paralyzed them with grief,” District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said about Michaela’s family during an afternoon news conference at Hayward police headquarters. “Their pain remains indescribable. It was so brazen, so ruthless and yet clearly planned. Our announcement hopefully will provide some comfort to the family, knowing that justice will prevail.”
Michaela was abducted on Nov. 19, 1988, from the parking lot of Rainbow Grocery on Mission Boulevard, where she and a friend had ridden their scooters a few blocks away from her home to buy some snacks.
According to O’Malley, her kidnapper moved one of the scooters away from the store and to a back area of the parking lot to isolate Michaela and grab her.
Michaela’s mother, Sharon Murch, said in an interview Monday afternoon that she still is struggling to process what her daughter may have gone through.
“I know that Michaela is not suffering now. I know that her suffering is over and she is in a better place and probably has a better perspective on everything than I do at this moment,” Murch told this news organization.
“But its been really hard to hear this news. It’s been really hard to hold onto everything that I have built up over the years,” she said.
Misch, 59, was in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin when the charges in
Michaela’s case were filed. He has been serving an 18year prison sentence after being convicted of seconddegree murder in 1990 for the December 1989 slaying of 36-year- old Margaret N. Ball, who was found stabbed to death in her Hayward home.
In 2018 he also was charged with the February 1986 murders of 18-yearold Michelle Xavier and 20-year- old Jennifer Duey. He is awaiting trial in that case.
Hayward police Detective Robert Prunell credited Fremont police investigators for the break, explaining in a brief interview Monday that they contacted Hayward police while working on the 1986 murders and said “this is somebody that we should look into.”
From there, detectives worked to piece together information, including manually comparing a partial palm print Misch left on Michaela’s scooter with one taken from him in recent years.
“In the ’ 80s and ’ 90s, palm prints were not taken as a matter of routine like they are today. We’ve gotten to this place through a lot of painstaking police work,” Prunell said.
A lthough Michaela’s body is still missing, O’Malley said her office has charged similar cases where a body was not found but the suspect later revealed its location.
“The evidence establishes that he was the kidnapper and Michaela’s body and Michaela herself have never been seen, her remains have never been found,” she said.
“We can extrapolate that she was killed, that she was murdered. The law does allow us to use the circumstances to prove that somebody has been killed,” O’Malley said.
Ken Gross, a former investigator in the case and a retired Hayward police officer, attended Monday’s news conference to witness the announcement.
“I am still so sorry for what happened,” Gross said, in telling reporters what he wanted Murch to know. “But then again, I’m very happy at this point in time for this part of the journey to come to an end.”
“It’s bittersweet,” Hayward police Chief Toney Chaplin said, adding he hopes it will offer Michaela’s family “some closure.”
Rod Garecht, Michaela’s father, said he was “relieved” authorities caught someone. “They’ve got a suspect that they can drill, and hopefully he’ll cop out to wherever her body is,” he said.
“I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison,” Murch said of Misch.
“I’m not a believer in the death penalty. And personally, I would rather trade information for where my daughter is for his life,” she said.
Murch, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, said that in all the years since her daughter was taken, she has focused on sharing with the world her daughter’s loving spirit by writing extensive blogs about her.
“A bright and shining light is how I have always described her. If you look at her you can see the bright and shining light, and it’s not just her blond hair and blue eyes,” she said.
“One of the reasons I have done so much writing and kept blogs is because I want to put her light out there into the world. I want her life to stand for something. I don’t want her to be forgotten,” Murch said.
“If she had lived, who knows what kind of great things she would have done,” Murch said. “But she didn’t have a chance to do them, so whatever I can do on her behalf, I want to do.”