Deceased man linked to 2 '70s killings in East Bay
The cold cases of two East Bay women who were slain and sexually assaulted seven years apart in the 1970s in eerily similar circumstances — home intrusions while other family members were asleep — now have a suspect: a man who died in 2007, linked by DNA genealogy analysis to the victims.
Hayward and Newark police announced Thursday that Fred Bernard Farnham, who died at the age of 73 in Oregon, was responsible for the slayings of Nellie Ann Hicks in 1972 in Newark and Theresa Pica in Hayward in 1979. Both women were found by family members who woke up in the morning to discover their loved ones' bodies bludgeoned and raped; an intruder had quietly entered their homes and attacked them as they slept in their living rooms.
DNA evidence retrieved from Pica's body had been analyzed multiple times in the past two decades, and several people who were investigated as possible assailants were excluded from suspicion. The remains of one potential suspect, identified through the same process that found Farnham, were exhumed two years ago and later excluded through DNA comparison to the crime scene evidence. That man, however, was on the same genealogical tree, police said.
Then this past December, Hayward and Newark investigators again consulted with the FBI and contracted with the Texas-based genealogy forensics company Othram and Santa Cruz-based Astrea Forensics to re-evaluate the DNA; the results led to Farnham being identified as the killer.
Officials say Farnham is likely to be suspected in other unsolved murders and have alerted law enforcement in an array of other jurisdictions to revisit their cold cases for possible connections.
“The search for answers is not over,” Hayward Police Chief Bryan Matthews said at a news conference at Hayward City Hall. “We believe Farnham may be responsible for additional
sexual assaults and murders in other communities.”
Matthews then outlined Farnham's geographical path through life: Growing up in the Central Valley then moving to the South Bay in the 1950s and being convicted there of multiple sexual assaults in the 1970s. There is no indication he ever lived in the East Bay. He also lived in Nevada, Idaho, North Dakota, Alaska and Oregon, where he died in the town of Cape Junction.
Hicks, a 59-year-old fourth grade teacher at Ashland School in San Lorenzo, was found dead May 10, 1972, in her Newark home. Her body was partially naked, and police determined that she had been raped and bludgeoned with a brick wrapped in pantyhose. The brutality was immediately apparent, with her head split open by the force of the blows.
Evidence at the scene indicated that her killer entered the home through an unlocked sliding glass door and used manicure scissors to cut her dress and bra. The only forensic evidence that police recovered were fingerprints that, for decades, never were tied to a specific person.
What made the killing even more notorious is the fact that Hicks' adult son and his wife as well as her longtime friend all lived in the home and were asleep as the slaying unfolded. That led police to suspect that the intruder knocked her unconscious before sexually assaulting her.
A motive for the killing eluded everyone who knew Hicks, who was remembered as a well-liked, respected teacher. She left an abusive husband a decade prior, but that thread and interrogations of other men she dated proved fruitless in finding a possible suspect.
Hicks' housemate, a fellow teacher, briefly spoke with her around 1 a.m. the morning of the killing, dozing off on a living room sofa. It was the last time she was seen alive.
About four hours later, Hicks' son discovered her lifeless body in the same room. Hicks' wallet was missing, though it was later found a few blocks away next to a pair of bloodstained panties.
David Hicks, the youngest of Nellie Hicks' six children and one of three still alive — the son who found the victim died over the holidays — thanked authorities who persisted to find closure in the 52-year-old cold case.
Hicks called his mother a “hero” who “raised a family of six and she worked full time as a teacher … I cannot express my gratitude enough for the Police Department and their dedication to this case. All of them worked extremely hard to bring closure to our family.”
Pica, 48, was discovered slumped over her couch, facedown, by one of her twin 10-year-old daughters on May 15, 1979, at their home on Edloe Drive in Hayward. Her nightgown had been pulled up, exposing her legs; her hands were bound behind her back with rope, and a bloodstained rock was found next to her. A shirt had been used to gag her, police found.
She last was seen alive the night before by her three children. A front room window had been pried open, and the only witness account of an intruder came from a neighbor who heard rustling near the home in the middle of the night.
In a statement read aloud at the news conference, Pica's daughters similarly voiced relief at the resolution provided by Farnham's identification.
“Our mother may now rest peacefully,” the statement reads. “We have accepted the fact that whoever did this would never come to justice. Nevertheless we thank God for your diligence and for never giving up … We can now move forward and close this painful chapter in our lives.”
Newark police Capt. Jolie Macias said after Pica was killed, Newark and Hayward police linked the crimes because of the “discernible pattern of behavior” shared by the two cases, which drove the belief that figuring out one case would solve the other. She also made a point to reciprocate the sentiments from the victims' survivors.
“Today is truly about these families and their resiliency for the past 50-plus years,” she said.
Anyone with information about criminal cases that could have connections to Farnham can contact Hayward police Detective Rob Purnell at 510-293-7176.