News

San Francisco Police Say DNA Ties "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez to the 1984 Killing of 9-Year-Old Mei Leung

The girl died more than two months before Ramirez's first known murder. Police said the DNA might also point to a second, unknown attacker.

Published

Richard Ramirez with long dark hair in a blue prison shirt, in a San Quentin photograph

Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker," was on death row for 13 Southern California murders. On October 22, 2009, San Francisco police said DNA tied him to the 1984 killing of 9-year-old Mei Leung.

Mei "Linda" Leung was found dead on April 10, 1984, in the basement of the building where she lived with her family, at 765 O'Farrell St. in the Tenderloin. The case was reopened five years before the announcement, when Inspector Holly Pera recalled it from her days as a young patrol officer. One item from the scene produced a "cold hit" in the national DNA database, and Ramirez gave detectives a confirming sample at San Quentin State Prison the day before the announcement. Police said the DNA possibly also linked a second, unknown attacker. Around the time of the killing, they said, Ramirez was living at two addresses in the Tenderloin, within about six blocks of the girl's building. "Hopefully, this will bring some closure to the family," Deputy Police Chief David Shinn said.

Mei was killed more than two months before Ramirez's first previously known murder, that of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow in Los Angeles on June 28, 1984. Ramirez was captured in East Los Angeles on August 31, 1985, and on September 20, 1989, a jury convicted him of 13 killings and later voted for death. He had also been charged in a 1985 killing in San Francisco but was never tried there.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Mei was found in the basement of her apartment building, while the Los Angeles Times described the building as a residential hotel.

Sources

In the Archive