Suspect arrested in San Francisco killing, 43 years later

SAN FRANCISCO – A man was arrested in Colorado on suspicion of killing a teenage girl in San Francisco more than four decades ago and detectives say he may be a suspect in other unsolved homicides.

Mark Stanley Personette, 76, was arrested in suburban Denver on Thursday following a joint operation by San Francisco police, the FBI and the Jefferson County Sheriff ’s office, authorities announced Sunday. He was booked for investigation of homicide in connection with the 1978 death of Marissa Harvey.

The 15-year-old New York girl was visiting family in San Francisco when she didn’t return from a day trip to Golden Gate Park. Her body was found a day later, in nearby Sutro Heights Park.

The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that investigators used the best available technology at the time and exhausted every lead, but the case went cold. In October 2020, they reopened the investigation and determined Personette to be a suspect using “advanced investigative methods,” the statement said without specifying the methods.