Cold case website launched by Santa Cruz police
On the anniversary of the death of Deborah Jean Cargill, a 19-year-old whose body was found in the San Lorenzo River in 1975, the Santa Cruz Police Department has unveiled a new website dedicated to solving cold cases.
More than four decades later, retired cop Ron Truhitte still gets emotional when he talks about Cargill’s unsolved homicide.
“I am a parent and to go for 41 years and not know what happened to my son or daughter? That would be hard to do,” said Truhitte, who for more than 30 years was a police officer with several different departments across California, including the Santa Cruz Police Department.
On December 21, 1975, the Campbell teen was kidnapped in San Jose by an unknown suspect, according to police. The next day, her body was found in the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz. From there, the case goes cold. But Truhitte, now a civilian detective with the force, isn’t giving up.
“Because we don’t forget,” Truhitte said. “The family remembers and the cops remember and I want to close a few things for some people.”
Truhitte is hoping the new website, which has information about cases and pictures of cold-case victims, will help solve the mystery of who killed Cargill.
He’s hoping the website will result in “having someone give us a name, a location, something we may be able to start putting things together.”
Putting things back together isn’t easy but since DNA, fingerprint and other police technology have improved so much, Truhitte thinks it might just take one piece of the puzzle to make the whole thing come together.
“Somebody knows something,” Truhitte said. “Over 41 years, someone knows something.”
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