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The Stanford University chapel slaying remained unsolved for 44 years.
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – San Jose Police Department reported that Steve Crawford, a security guard listed as a person of interest in the 1974 ritualist murder of Arlis Perry, committed suicide on Thursday. The man, who was wanted in connection with the Stanford University chapel, turned the gun on him after the authorities knocked on his door.
Stanford University Chapel Slaying Pinned on Ted Bundy or Occultists
On the 12th of October 1974, North Carolina homicide detectives were called to Stanford University’s chapel, after a person discovered the body of a 19-year-old woman.
The authorities later identified the victim as 19-year-old Arlis Perry, who had been living on campus with her husband.
Perry’s death baffled the authorities. According to a police report dated October 1974, the victim had been discovered laying on the ground, with an ice pick embedded in the back of her head. Furthermore, Arlis was naked from the waist down.
The homicide detectives investigating Arlis’ murder stated that there were altar candles on the woman’s torso. Later, the county’s coroner would write that the assailant also placed altar candles inside Mrs. Perry’s body.
Unfortunately, the case was put on ice, as the authorities did not have enough leads to incriminate a person.
Decades later, North Carolina authorities reopened Perry’s case. Encouraged by the new DNA sampling techniques that led to the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, the notorious Golden State Killer, and Raymond Rowe, the man responsible for the murder of an elementary school teacher in 1992.
After applying the method to several samples collected from the crime scenes, the authorities discovered that Perry’s killer was the same man who discovered her body – Steve Crawford, the campus security guard.
Conclusion
On Thursday, several lawmen knocked on 72-year-old Crawford’s door to inform him that he had been named a person of interest in the Stanford University chapel slaying.
Crawford, who talked with the deputies through the door, brandished a gun, prompting the officers to back up. Several minutes late, a gunshot was heard from inside.
Image source: Flickr
