Prosecutors tie murder suspect to other slayings
Man arraigned in 1979 death of woman from San Rafael
A man charged with murdering a Marin County woman in Nevada four decades ago is suspected of two other homicides, the prosecution said.
Charles Gary Sullivan, 73, was arraigned in a Reno courtroom on Tuesday in the 1979 slaying of Julia Woodward, 20, of San Rafael. Authorities indicted him recently on the basis of DNA evidence.
In a bail motion, the prosecution said Sullivan is a suspect in the murders of two other women in the Reno area in the late 1970s. Sullivan has not been charged in those cases, but the circumstances are similar to the Woodward homicide, the prosecution said.
“All evidence points to defendant being a serial killer, responsible for the murders of Julia Wood
ward and others,” Michael Kovac, a Washoe County prosecutor, wrote in a bail motion.
Woodward on Feb. 1,
1979, when a fr iend dropped her off at
San Francisco International
Airport, aut h o r i t i e s said. She was traveling to Reno to look for work there or in the Lake Tahoe area.
A motorcyclist found her body on March 25, 1979, in Hungry Valley, about 15 miles north of Reno, authorities said. The cause of death was blunt force trauma. Authorities said she was bound, gagged and struck in the head with a rock.
left
California
“One of her shoes had been removed, and holes had been worn through her sock, suggesting that she had been dragged or forced to walk through the rough desert brush,” Kovac wrote.
The case remained unsolved for decades. But in recent years, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office began a review of dozens of cold cases, including Woodward’s.
During that process, investigators matched DNA evidence from Woodward’s clothing to a DNA sample from Sullivan. The sample had been collected in California in 2007, when Sullivan was arrested on suspicion of attacking a hitchhiker in Nevada County, according to the bail motion.
Sullivan bound the hitchhiker at the wrists and ankles and said he planned to detain her for a few days of sex, but she was able to escape and flag down some passersby. Sullivan was
convicted of false imprisonment and criminal threats.
In August of this year, Nevada authorities, fortified by the new DNA link, obtained a ind i c tment against Sullivan. Authorities arrested him on Aug. 28 in Yavapai
County, Arizona, where he lives.
Authorities extradited him to Washoe County on Friday. After the arraignment Tuesday, Sullivan’s defense attorney questioned the value of the DNA evidence.
“Even if DNA shows he had contact with her, where is the act of murder proved?” the lawyer, David Houston, told the Associated Press.
In the motion to deny bail, the prosecution said Sullivan appears to be behind
two other Reno homicides in 1978 and 1979. The victims were Jeannie Smith, a 17-year- old casino worker whose skeleton was found in Hungry Valley, and Linda Taylor, 23, a Reno resident who was reported missing by a roommate.
Police got a tip about a bearded man who had been seen with Taylor two days before her disappearance. They identified him as Sullivan, who had shaved the beard by the time detectives contacted him.
“When questioned by authorities, defendant initially lied and indicated that he had not met Taylor,” Kovac wrote. “Upon further questioning, he admitted that he went on a date with her, but he denied having any knowledge of the circumstances of her disappearance.”
Police found Taylor’s abandoned car at a shopping center a few days later. Taylor remains missing.