The Sacramento Police Department, in partnership with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, has identified a suspect in the 1981 murder of a developmentally disabled tenth grader.  The body of the girl was found dumped on the side of a road in North Sacramento, and despite years of investigation, the case remained unsolved for nearly 40 years.

New DNA technology is now providing new leads in crimes that have gone unsolved for years, and has helped the investigators continuing to work this case to identify the sole suspect in this murder as Vernon Parker.

On January 15, 1981 at approximately 7:45 a.m., a witness located the body of a girl on what was then a rural stretch of San Juan Road in North Sacramento. It was determined during the subsequent investigation by Sacramento Police Detectives that she was stabbed multiple times and died as a result of her injuries. The victim was identified as 17-year-old Mary London, who at the time of her murder was a tenth grader at Sacramento High School, and according to her family was developmentally disabled.

Though the case went cold, investigators at the Sacramento Police Department continued to search for evidence and follow any leads regarding London’s murder. Their breakthrough came as new DNA technology was introduced, and Sacramento Police Department investigators worked closely with the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office to use investigative genetic genealogy and traditional DNA testing to link Vernon Parker to the brutal murder of Mary London.

“Investigative Genetic Genealogy has revolutionized law enforcement’s ability to solve violent crime: to identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent,” District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said. “Mary London’s murder is yet another example of the passion and persistence of law enforcement and the use of innovative scientific techniques to bring justice to victims and their families.”

Parker himself was murdered in 1982, a little more than a year after Mary’s death. “Though this case won’t end with the suspect facing the justice system, the decades of work by Sacramento Police Department investigators, forensic personnel, and the office of the Sacramento County District Attorney has resulted in what we hope will be closure for London’s family,” said Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn.