On September 14, 2021, a jury convicted 77 year-old Defendant John Arthur Getreu, a Hayward resident, of 1st Degree Murder, which he committed in 1974.
On March 25, 1974, the body of 21year-old victim Janet Taylor, who had been strangled, was found along the roadside on Sand Hill Road west of Interstate 280. Ms. Taylor’s murder remained unsolved until 2018 when the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Team reopened the case working with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Detectives who were themselves investigating the February16, 1973 murder of 21year-old Leslie Perlov, who also was strangled and her body was dumped in the Stanford Dish hiking area. Criminalist Alice Hilker of the San Mateo County Forensics Laboratory testified at trial that DNA evidence taken from the torn crotch area of Victim Taylor’s pants was matched to a DNA sample of the Defendant.
Defendant had also been previously convicted of the 1963 rape and murder of Margaret Williams in Germany as well as the rape of a Palo Alto resident in 1975.
Deputy District Attorney Josh Stauffer tried the case with the assistance of investigating officer, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Officer Detective Gordon Currie.