Mark Stanley Personette, aged 80, has been convicted of the 1978 first-degree murder and sexual assault of 15-year-old Marissa Harvey in San Francisco, nearly 50 years after the crime. Harvey was found strangled and sexually assaulted in Golden Gate Park after disappearing while visiting her sister. Despite an extensive investigation at the time, the case went cold until San Francisco’s cold-case unit reopened it in 2020, using advanced forensic techniques including investigative genealogy. Personette was identified through DNA evidence linked to both the crime scene and discarded hygiene products found in Colorado, where he lived at the time.

Personette, who denied being in San Francisco, was arrested in 2021 and found guilty by a jury that reviewed complex forensic evidence. His defense lawyer acknowledged the verdict but maintained there was reasonable doubt due to multiple DNA profiles at the scene. Personette is set to be sentenced in December and faces a potential life sentence, with the District Attorney affirming that justice has finally been served for this decades-old case.