Going West: True Crime - Arlis Perry // 356

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

In October of 1974, a 19-year-old woman headed to her church at midnight after she and her husband got into an argument. But when she didn’t return home that night, her husband reported her missing. When her body was found inside in a ritualistic manner just hours later, police began a painstaking investigation. Decades later, when a DNA match was made, a shocking ending came to her case. This is the story of Arlis Perry. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://abc7news.com/san-jose-shooting-murder-stanford-memorial-church/3677065/ https://padailypost.com/2018/11/21/sheriff-arrests-suspect-in-1974-murder-of-stanford-grad/ https://stanfordmag.org/contents/50-years-after-the-stanford-murders-three-of-four-families-have-answers https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-44-year-killing-shoots-death-police-close/story?id=56262649#:~:text=Stephen%20Blake%20Crawford%2C%2072%2C%20had,Santa%20Clara%20County%20Sheriff%27s%20Office. https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/alleged-stanford-serial-killer-convicted-1974-murder-football-legend-chuck-taylors-daughter/U3EQYWHSORGZTOMUYLEYTOKCBA/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/10/murder-at-memorial-church-remains-unsolved-40-years-later/ https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/how-is-murder-of-arlis-perry-connected-to-son-of-sam-case https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79959583/arlis-kay-perry https://abc7news.com/san-jose-shooting-murder-stanford-memorial-church/3677065/ https://thecinemaholic.com/arlis-perrys-murder-did-stephen-crawford-kill-her-how-did-he-die/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, thank you for tuning in. Today's case was actually recommended by a former columnist for the San Jose Mercury news who wrote a book on this case. And that is Scott Harald.

So thank you so much. And if anybody is really interested in this case after hearing today's episode and you want almost a 400 page scoop on this story with all the latest since that book came out this year. Check it out! So big thanks again to Scott for recommending this one and for all the hard work that you put in on Arles' case. Yeah, thank you so much Scott, and I have one quick announcement before we get into today's

episode. As some of you going West listeners probably know, I have been making music lately, and I'm really, really excited about it. I'm about to put out my very first single under the artist's name Ghostly. The song is called NUM. And I've actually got a really cool music video that I shot recently that's going to be coming out with that song as well. So please go over and support me.

I'm on Instagram at ghostly.la. Again, the song is called NUM. Yeah, that's coming out what next week? Yeah, it's coming out next week, next Wednesday, so the 15th. It is so good, like genuinely, I'm not just saying this because you're my husband, but heat's music is amazing, so go check it out

and we'll remind you guys next week's you can check out that music video. Yes, I would appreciate it so much. All right, enough of the music plug. Let's get into today's very disturbing case. This is episode 356 of Going West, so let's get into it. Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful, as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks.

Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stuck your buck for fun Stuck you always really wanted this holiday and Amazon Stuck that is discounted if you're naughty or you're nice Stuck to buy your grandma, who drinks her shard and nail the nice Stuck to make you big and strong, stuck we can't leave in this song Stuck her long to begging holes, say people some fat Amazon. Stop!

In October of 1974, a 19-year-old woman headed to her church at midnight after she and her husband got into an argument. But when she didn't return home that night, her husband reported her missing. When her body was found inside in a ritualistic manner just hours later, police began a pain-staking investigation. Decades later, when a DNA match was made, a shocking ending came to her case. This is the story of Arles K. Dykama was born on February 22, 1955 in the small rural city of Linton, North Dakota to Jeanne and Marvin, along with her brother Larry and sister Karen. But after her birth, the Dykama's moved about an hour north to the much larger capital city of Bismarck,

North Dakota. And it was there that she went to Bismarck High School and met the man that would later become her husband, a man named Bruce Perry. Arles was an intelligent and kind cheerleader and member of the Fellowship of Christian athletes as a huddle leader, which is a non-profit Christian sports ministry, as she was very dedicated to her religion. And her high school sweetheart Bruce was also an athlete, running track and field, but with his sights set on becoming a doctor.

In 1973, Arles and Bruce graduated from high school and continued their relationship, despite Bruce moving across the country to Stanford to begin his pre-med journey studying human biology. With Bruce in California now, Arles was deciding on what she wanted to do, just knowing that she wanted to be with Bruce long-term. But before deciding to join him on the West Coast, she began attending Bismarck, Jr. College, while working for Bruce's family's dental practice as a receptionist. But after nearly a year of being long-distance with Bruce on August 17,

1974, the two 19-year-olds got married at the Bismarck Reformed Church, ready to start their life together. So, after honeymooning at Arles's family's cabin, the Perry newlyweds made the move to Palo Alto, California, so they could drop the long-distance relationship, and Bruce could continue his studies at the prestigious Stanford University. And for those who don't know, Stanford is technically a community of its own, with its own zip code too, but it's technically in the city of Palo Alto, which has since become known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay area.

And there, Bruce and Arles moved into Quellen Hall, which is Stanford housing for students who were married or with children. So although this was a big change for Arles, who had never lived outside of Bismarck or away from her family, she was trying her best to thrive. She got a job as a receptionist nearby at a local law firm so that she could keep busy while Bruce was working and studying, and she even joined the Stanford Memorial Church, all while staying very close in touch with her family and loved ones back in North Dakota. But in such letters to her longtime friends, she expressed her loneliness and her difficulty

finding friends. In one letter, she even explained that she was literally going door to door, asking people if they needed a new friend, which honestly just sounds very heartbreaking, but also goes to show you just how sweet she was. But when that didn't work, she continued relying on letters to her pre-existing pals in North Dakota. And it was actually sending those people letters that inadvertently led to her demise. Less than two months into their marriage and move, on Saturday, October 12, 1974, Bruce accompanied Arles on a late-night walk to the mailbox to send off a batch of letters.

Now, it was 11.30pm, and although Arles loved to walk in the beautiful California fall weather, Bruce didn't feel super comfortable with it. And since the campus mailbox was a fairly short distance away, so about a half a mile or 0.8 kilometers, he decided to go with her. But during this casual evening jaunt, the two got into a simple married couple fight about their car's tire pressure, something about who was supposed to fill it up. So after dropping off the letters, Arles told Bruce that she wanted to walk to the church alone and pray by herself.

Likely just kind of trying to clear her mind and have a moment to herself. So Bruce, who was also annoyed, watched Arles walk into the memorial church nearby and then set off back home, leaving Arles to walk back home alone. But hours passed and eventually it was 3 o'clock in the morning and Arles had still not returned. By then it had been about three hours since they parted outside the church, so Bruce didn't have a clue where she could be, but he couldn't imagine that she was still praying at the church, especially because by now the church was closed. Yeah, and what's making this even more complicated is it's not like, you

know, she left at seven o'clock to go to the mailbox with him. This was again around 11.30 p.m. So it being three o'clock in the morning, he's probably thinking, well, I mean, it has been three hours, but it's not like it's been 10. But it's also the middle of the night. Sure. So like where the hell is she? and that does feel a little bit more alarming. Exactly, so at about three o'clock or a little bit after three is when Bruce decided to call the police. And he just kind of explained the situation and hoped that they could find her safe and sound. So the first place that they looked

was the Sanford Memorial Church, which is the church that she belonged to and went to visit that very night. And by the way, we will post photos so you guys can see because this church is massive and it is absolutely beautiful. So when police arrived in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 13th, 1974, they found that the doors to the church were all locked. Now, in order to ensure that she wasn't inside, they found a nighttime campus security guard,

a 28-year-old man named Stephen Crawford, who had actually previously been a Stanford police officer. They found him and asked him if he would unlock the doors. Well, this was happening around the same time that Stephen had realized that the door on the west side of the church was open, and he was looking for investigators to explain what he had found. Now according to Stephen, just after midnight, so within 15 minutes of Arles and Bruce parting ways at the church, Stephen cleared the church and locked up for the evening,

and then checked the doors again two hours later around 2 a.m. Then, at 5.45 a.m., upon noticing the west side door was open and had appeared to be forced in, while it was later determined it was forced open from the inside, he investigated. And what Stephen found was the horrific scene of a murder. Near the church's altar, 19-year-old Arles Perry was found lying face-up deceased. Her death was particularly gruesome because she was not only found to be strangled, but her neck was broken and there was an ice pick still lodged in the back of her head, but terrifyingly the handle was either missing or had broken off during the act.

And thus later, her cause of death would be a stab wound to her cranium. Now although Arlyse was found with her hands folded across her chest holding a long altar candle, which was positioned between her breasts, she was found without clothes from the waist down. And this next detail is disturbing and it's regarding her genitalia, so just a forewarning, but there was another candle found at the scene and this one was a three-foot-long altar candle and she was sexually assaulted with it. Now her blouse was ripped open to expose part of the candle on her chest, and the jeans

that she had been wearing that night were there as well, but they were laying on top of her legs. So this was without question an incredibly unnerving thing to come across. And when campus security officer Stephen Crawford had allegedly stumbled upon this shortly before 6 in the morning. He found police, who again were already looking for Arles Perry at this point. So the first thing that police noticed that was strange was that even before seeing Arles' body, Stephen had a bit of blood on him.

But he had a quick excuse for this. He said that he suffered from nose bleeds whenever he was in a very stressful situation, which obviously he was in one at this point. So as police began investigating the horrible scene inside of the Stanford Memorial Church, they collected various pieces of evidence, including alter candles, one of which had a partial palm print on it, and a kneeling pillow near Arles' body that was found to have semen on it. Off the bat, there were two people immediately suspicious to police.

Of course, Arles' husband Bruce Perry, who admitted to getting into an argument during their final conversation and then walking away, and then Stephen Crawford, who had been the one to lock up the church and later stumble upon Arles' body. So although it was 1974, they did the very best that they could with the evidence that they had, and tried to connect the partial pamprint to both of these men, but neither of them were a match. And it didn't match to anyone else that they had tested it against either, making them immediately wonder

who could have done this to Arles and how? Well, police still didn't want to let 28-year-old Stephen Crawford fully off the hook, so they even tested the blood that was found on him and discovered that it did belong to him, making the nosebleed story even more believable. But still, they questioned him and administered a polygraph test, which he passed. So it kinda didn't feel like there was a whole lot more they could do right now.

You know, they checked his palm print, they questioned him, they did a polygraph, they checked the blood. Yeah, he's saying, I didn't do this, I was out patrolling. I checked the doors at these times. I locked up and nobody was in there. You know, he's giving this whole story and the police are kind of like, okay, what are we, what else can we really do here? Yeah, but at the same time, it's like they know that Arles was found inside the church. So it seems almost impossible that Steven wouldn't have noticed anything when he was locking up. Which is why it was really hard for them to let him go. So, and I know by the way we skipped

ahead for a moment telling you that the DNA at the scene did not match Bruce Perry's, but let's go back to when police uncovered our list and the almost like ritualistic way in which she was found. So Bruce was the one to report her missing like we said, and since they didn't know whether or not he was involved, they didn't want to tell him outright that his wife had been murdered. So they first questioned him about the last time he saw her, etc. and tried to see if he would squirm with anything they suggested, because they were kind of trying to pull out a motive for why he would want to kill her if he did, but they couldn't get anything out of him. So Bruce explained that after returning home, knowing the church was closed at midnight,

he was confused when Arles didn't return by 1215, because they were less than a 10-minute walk away from the church. So he headed back there, only to find that all the doors were locked. So then he kind of walked around the rest of the campus to look for her, but to know of Elle. And that's when he returned home to wait until 3am when he called the police.

According to Bruce, when he did call the police, he didn't believe anything nefarious had happened. I mean, after all, they lived in a very safe and quaint community and campus, so he originally believed that Arles had just fallen asleep inside, only to be accidentally locked in. So after police felt satisfied with their conversation, they fingerprinted and polygraphed Bruce, and he also passed, no longer being considered a person of interest. And it was then that they had to break the news to him that by the time he had reported

her missing, his wife of two months was already dead. So after Bruce was informed that his wife had been murdered, he was understandably horrified. I mean, especially with the guilt of their argument and him leaving her at the church just swirling around in his head. And it being a Sunday that she was found, that morning's church had to be held on the lawn as the news of what happened inside radiated across campus. After news spread, someone came forward explaining that they may have seen a man enter the church, and about the same time Arlyst did, which again was around midnight the night before.

This person reported that the man had sandy blonde hair with a medium build, looking to be in his mid-twenties, which by the way did not seem to match the description of Bruce or Stephen. But was this person even responsible anyway? A couple other people came forward as well to report that they saw Arlyst enter and go towards the front of the church to kneel in prayer. They were towards the back at the time and left just after she arrived, leaving her alone in the church, which again was massive.

So it's worth mentioning that the church closed at midnight. So although Stephen claims he didn't lock the doors until just after midnight, Arles couldn't have been in there for very long since she arrived shortly before midnight. And at 12-10 AM, is when Stephen walked in to announce that he was closing the church up and anyone inside would need to exit. Also according to Stephen, no one was inside to hear this message, meaning according to his account, Arles was not in the church for more than 15 minutes total. So then how, after he locked the doors, which he

have been murdered and laid inside over the course of the night. While he did say that he noticed the West door was forcibly opened around 5.45 am, but that would mean that someone killed Arles upon her leaving the church and broken hours later only to display her body near the altar. So this back and forth really doesn't make any sense, making it hard to believe that Stephen wasn't involved. But again, the police just couldn't connect any actual evidence to him. But then, there's the fact that the door appeared to be forced open from the inside, as if maybe someone in the church hid Arlyse as Stephen did his rounds and locked up, and then spent

the next few hours assaulting and killing her before forcing their way outside. Because according to Stephen, the door was not a jar when he did its 2am check, meaning if Stephen wasn't the killer, then the real killer would have been in there with Arles for over 2 hours. Unless the broken door was a ruse. Now one of the only other people to have access to the church's keys was the chapel's dean, the same man who did the Sunday service on the lawn. So please question him and ministered him a polygraph test and check to see if his

pomprent was a match to the partial that they had. But he was cleared, and thus the search continued, with over 100 people's pamprints being compared to the sample, but nobody was a match. They heavily looked into local sex offenders as well, since it did appear that Arles had been raped before she was murdered because of the seamen that was found on the pillow, and obviously there was the horrific sexual assault with that candle. But with such a brutal and almost personal murder, police were just stumped. Because as we've stated, Arles was new to town and she was also married.

So who would want to do this to her and why? Well interestingly enough, there was an unknown young man that had visited her at work on the day before she was murdered. Slay the holidays with Real Canadian Superstores PC Holiday Insiders Report. Serve Appies under $16, like PC Pellenta Fries, PC Cranberry, Breed Pastry Bites, and PC Eggplant Parmesan Espoir Le Attelle. Wow, only at your Super Holiday Store. It would be a tragedy if we were losing one person to drug overdose every day, even five, seven, or twelve people,

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Small business runs better on thrive. Get it free today at thriveth THRYV.ca. Terms and conditions apply. Free plans have limited functionality. On Friday, October 1, 1974, Arles was just about two weeks into her job at the law firm. Remember she was working as a receptionist. Now, as we stated, she had been having a pretty hard time making friends, but strangely, a young man came to visit her that afternoon. No one knew who the man was, because even her husband Bruce hadn't come to visit her that afternoon. No one knew who the man was because even her husband Bruce hadn't come to visit her yet since she was so new,

but they actually all figured that he was her husband Bruce and didn't give it another thought. Because the conversation that this young man had with Arles appeared to be a bit serious, though no one heard exactly what was said, but they did speak for nearly 20 minutes. The young man appeared to be in his early 20s, had blonde hair, and stood around 5'10", meaning that he seemed to match the description of the man, going into the memorial church

shortly after our list did, just before she was killed. So this was a really difficult situation, because some of her co-workers could have probably identified this man had they, you know, seen him again, but nobody did. And the description they had of him was a fairly basic one. So there really wasn't anything police could do about it, especially since this young man never came forward to identify himself, which to me is a bit suspicious, honestly. Yeah, I mean, it definitely does feel suspicious. And again, he does match that description of the person that was seen going into the

memorial church, but, you know, again, that was also a very basic description as well. Yeah, and it's hard to say who this guy is, what he wanted, if he had anything to do with Arles's killer, this is just some random guy. Yeah, I mean it really is just so hard to know what this encounter was about. So as the investigation progressed, a memorial was held for Arles in the very place that her life was taken. The Stanford Memorial Church on Tuesday, October 15, 1974. Her family flew out from Bismarck, just totally gobsmacked and disturbed, that something like that could have happened to their beautiful and bright young daughter and sister.

And actually, an attendance was only her family, Bruce's family, and a few of Arles' co-workers since they didn't have any friends yet. Thus, her family held a separate service and funeral back in Bismarck, North Dakota, with all of her loved ones after her body was transported there for burial about two weeks later. And creepy enough, during the week of Halloween, Arlyst's temporary grave marker was stolen from the site of her burial. And the weird thing about that was that it was the only one in the entire cemetery that was stolen.

So was this some poor-tasted Halloween prank? Or was her killer someone that she had known back in Bismarck? While speaking of Bismarck, a rumor started back in Arles' hometown that she was involved with a satanic cult who followed and stalked her to California just to murder her. And this rumor was heavily perpetrated by a serial killer that most of you know, the son of Sam or David Berkowitz. So after David Berkowitz was found guilty of killing at least six people in 1970s New York, he claimed to have information about Arles' murder while he sat in prison. In a 1979 letter, so five years after Arles was found, David Berkowitz Perry, hunted, stalked, and slain, followed to California, Stanford University.

With this letter was a photo of a satanic group and a book titled The Anatomy of Witchcraft. Now this rumor was already popping around Bismarck because apparently before moving to California, Arlyst had attended some sort of event for a local satanic Colton Bismarck, and she'd gone there to try and convert some of the members to Christianity. So the rumor goes that someone there then began stalking her, followed her to California, and killed her.

But as stated best by a retired captain for the Stanford Department of Public Safety, named Raoul Nymeyer. He said, quote, without any specific information, where were we going to get with it? But as David Berkowitz continued to push this rumor, police headed across country to New York to speak with him on the matter. And after doing so, they felt confident that he had no actual evidence or real information

about Arles to share. So that just turned into a dead end. And it's so interesting that he involved himself in a case that was all the way across the country. And you know, we see a lot of serial killers or just people who are in prison do this, like say, oh, I've got information on this case when they really don't, and it's just dumb. Yeah, I don't know if his motive was to get a lesson sentence. I can't imagine since he was found guilty

of murdering six people. So I mean, how much less than life can you get for something like that? Yeah, I don't know what they were gonna do for him. Yeah, I have no idea, but it is interesting that he wrote this. But anyway, so as Arles' case turned cold sadly over the 1970s, law enforcement couldn't ignore that there were multiple other young people murdered around the same time in the

same general area. On February 16, 1973, so over a year and a half before Arles was killed. A 21-year-old woman named Leslie Perlov had recently graduated from Stanford and was living in Palo Alto, working at a law library. She had studied history and loved traveling and writing poetry, and she even painted. And sadly, before she was killed, she had headed out into nature to photograph a tree and she even painted. And sadly before she was killed she had headed out into nature to photograph a scene and painted as a gift for her mom's birthday and it was there in the foothills above the Stanford campus along the Stanford-Dish hiking trail where she

was found strangled by her own scarf and sexually assaulted. Then, seven months later, on September 11, 1973, a 20-year-old Stanford student named David Levine was found stabbed 15 times in the back in front of the Meyer Library on the Stanford campus. He was from Ithaca, New York, and headed off to Stanford to study physics, being described by those who knew him as brilliant and a hard worker. Then six months later, on March 25, 1974, a 21-year-old woman named Janet and Taylor was

found strangled to death and sexually assaulted on Sand Hill Road just outside of the town of Stanford. And although she didn't go toford herself, there was a connection because her father had been the athletics director there. Janet had been studying at Canyada College and was last seen trying to hitchhike back home. Then seven months later was Arlyss' murder, and less than two years after that, on July 20, 1976, a 25-year-old man named Edward McNeill was found murdered inside his Menlo Park apartment, which is right next to Palo Alto and Stanford.

He had been strangled to death and was bound with tape, and had been sitting there for two days before he was found. I gotta say, 1970s, like Northern California, like in this area, Palo Alto, Stanford, Santa Cruz. I mean, you had... San Francisco. Yeah, yeah, San Francisco. You had people like the Zodiac Killer. You had people like Ed Kemper, just so many different

brutal murders happening around this campus in that time frame. It is so weird and true. And as I was researching this case, I found police talking about that a lot, like a lot of different quotes discussing how heavy the serial killer activity was in California during this time period,

which is so insane to think about that it really was quite heavy. Yeah, it was. You know, I remember watching documentaries about Edmund Kemper and all the murders that he did around UC Santa Cruz and in that area and UC Santa Cruz is very close to Stanford as well. I mean, they're all, all of these places are within Northern California. So yeah, it's very terrifying that just in the 1970s,

there was so much murder happening. And that's why this is more confusing for police because they're thinking there's all these murders of these young people in this exact area over a relatively short period of time. Yeah, are they connected to one person? Is it multiple people doing it, you know? Exactly. Well, you know, exactly?

Well crazy enough multiple of these cases actually came to a conclusion in the same manner during the same year which was 2018 including Arleases For years it was speculated that at least a few of these murders were connected because there were so many similarities. And on Halloween 2018, a 74-year-old man named John Getru was being surveilled by police as he had been a long suspect in a few of these cases. While police watched as he entered a medical building in northern California with his wife

and threw out a coffee cup outside. And obviously thinking very quickly, two Santa Clara County investigators were swift and safely grabbing this cup to see if possibly his DNA would finally match these 50 plus year old murders. And when they ran his DNA against multiple crime scenes, it was a match for two of them. That of 21 year olds Leslie Perlove and Janet Taylor. But they weren't the first women he killed because 10 years earlier in June of 1963, then 18-year-old John Getreau was living in West Germany with his family due to his father's

position in the military, and for reference John was actually born in Ohio. So he headed off to his high school's disco, where he met a fellow student, 15-year-old Margaret L. Williams. And after the dance, he took her to the school's baseball field, where he raped and beat her nearly to death. And sadly, although she did not die that night, she did die later due to complications from the severe head injury

that she had sustained from John. Well get this, he was caught for this murder and even arrested that same year as an 18 year old, but he was only sentenced to 10 years in prison. Now devastatingly, he would only serve about 6 years before he was paroled and released, but of course he was far from rehabilitated. Because a few years later, after returning to the United States, he went on to kill Leslie Perlov and Janet Taylor. And although he did go on to get married and have two children, who knows if he murdered more people, considering he wasn't arrested

until the age of 74? Which is just insane. I mean, I'm so glad that they caught him at some point, but it's sad that it took that long, because this guy's obviously a monster. Absolutely, and it really does make your mind wonder if he could be connected to any other cases. Well, after being found guilty of murdering both Leslie and Janet, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. But that only turned out to be another two years, because these trials didn't occur until 2021 and 2022, and on September 22nd, 2023. So this year, John Gettrude died in Stockton, California from

currently unreleased causes at the age of 79. David Levine's murder was also potentially linked to John Gettrue, but he was never proven to have been behind it sadly, and David's case, as well as Edward McNeil's, remain unsolved to this day. But like he said, in 2018, answers also came to Arly's case.

So basically, the years continue to pass after her murder and police just could not figure out who killed Arly's Perry. However, they did keep the DNA evidence in her case, hoping that one day it would bring a fruitful match. Very smart. I know it's so sad that in some cases, we cover the DNA gets lost or it gets damaged or

they just didn't believe that DNA technology would catch up some, you know, some time later in the future. Yeah, so they didn't save it. Exactly. But they did in this case they were very diligent about that. And obviously as it goes when cases go cold, there can't be someone working on it every day. But Arlis' case was frequently looked

at, and over the years, investigators just kept coming back to nighttime security guard Stephen Crawford. They even started questioning him again in 2016, but he maintained his innocence. With better DNA technology by then, police were interested in testing his DNA to see if it was a match, but they didn't have it. They did have Bruce Perry's DNA and were able to concretely determine with modern technology that he was not involved.

But Steven wasn't giving it up. So just like with John Getrugh, investigators collected items of Steven's garbage to see if his saliva DNA would match what was taken from the crime scene back in 1974. And in 2018, the results came back. It was a match. It's unclear why the POMPrint didn't match Steven's back in the day, or the partial POMPrint, though it's possible that something got messed up since they did only have a partial anyway. But now they had a DNA match.

So it was official that the man long suspected of killing our list was behind it after all and able to live a normal life for over 40 years afterwards. Which again, is just really devastating and bizarre that these different cases that we're talking about came to resolution in the same year in the same way and they both were in their 70s and got away with it for over 45 years. Yeah, you know, when we started this podcast a long time ago, I said in an episode that all of these old fuckers are going down due to this new DNA technology which we have with genealogy now which is amazing. And it's crazy to see these old guys that are in their 70s, 80s, you know, being put in handcuffs and going to prison for murder.

Well luckily now that we have the technology, cases won't take so long to solve or most of them won't. Hopefully long to solve or most of them won't. So these pieces of shit can't get away with it for 45 years. But before we get into what happened after this discovery, let's talk about who Stephen was. So he was born on February 11th, 1946 in Los Angeles, California, again, making him 28 years old when he killed Arles Perry.

He was the president of his high school band and played drums, and then went on to be in the U.S. Air Force. When he did return to California, he started working for the Stanford Department of Public Safety in 1971, where he worked as a police officer for about a year. But then, he was demoted, if you will, to a security guard when a new police chief came in and changed up to 75% of the officer's positions. So this really pissed even off because he wanted to be an officer and not a security guard. But he stayed in this position until 1976 when he left Stanford all together for San Jose

California. So he left two years together for San Jose, California. So he left two years after Arles was killed. And obviously San Jose, for those who know the Bay Area, is not far at all from Palo Alto. Yeah, pretty close. And Stanford. But while he was there in Stanford, while he was working there,

he was able to obtain a blank certificate, which he used to forge a false diploma later on. He also stole thousands of dollars worth of items from the university so this guy was committing crimes left and right. And probably his chief of police knew how much of a ding dong this guy was and that's why he was demoted. Well I wonder because I mean five percent of the officers were

switched around well yeah i totally get that but maybe but maybe yeah so in nineteen ninety two his then x-wife actually reported him for all of these things because she was eventually told you know you tell your partner everything sure and she she told on him after they split up. And so for all these things that he did, he was caught and charged, but given a six-month suspended sentence with two years' probation. So that's all he got.

And as investigators continue to look over Arles' case, Steven just always stuck out to them. And when the DNA was a match, they headed to Steven's house to arrest him. On June 28, 2018 at 9.04 a.m., Santa Clara County Sheriff's Detectives descended upon 72-year-old Steven Crawford's San Jose apartment with a search warrant. Now after Steven opened the door and heard about why they were there, Steven requested a few minutes so that he could get dressed, which he was granted. But when police felt that it was taking too long, they got a key from the apartment building

manager and made their way inside. When they reached Steven's bedroom, he was calmly sitting on the bed with a gun in his hand, which totally shocked police, so they ran and they ducked for cover. Now as soon as they did, they heard a single gunshot go off and found Stephen Crawford lying dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which was all captured on the police's body cams. Which is just crazy that this was able to happen. Like they were there for a search warrant so that they could also arrest him, right?

They wanted to, the DNA was a match. They were there to search his home. Yeah. And then to be able to make the arrest. And they give him a few minutes to get dressed. It's the morning, maybe he's in his robe or his pajamas or whatever. But the fact that he then went inside

and essentially locked the door and then did what he did and they just caught him in the act. Like it's just insane that that happened and it just says more than anything to me that he was guilty as hell. Oh, absolutely, yeah. And I imagine that Stephen probably knew that one day that was gonna come. I'm sure he was watching the news develop and, you know, the DNA technology develop over the years and probably knew that at some point he was gonna have to pull that gun out of

a dresser drawer and take his own life. And 44 years too late. So once they processed this new suicide scene, police finally started searching his studio apartment for any other evidence that could lead them to Arles Perry's murder. Bags of items were removed from the home to process, though we're still unsure what and if they found anything of use or relevance. We do know that they found a quote hastily written suicide note on a computer table about a foot away from his bed. So all that police have announced thus far is that

the note appeared to be rambling and doesn't specifically mention murder, and that it appears to have been written two years earlier in 2016, which was the same year that investigators began questioning him about Arles' case again. Also found in his home was the book The Ultimate Evil by Mori Terry. Now this is interesting because it was written 13 years after Arles' murder in 1987, and it actually includes a segment about Arles' Perry's murder in the book, found in Stephen's home. Exactly, and this is how the book is described online, quote, a terrifying investigation into one of America's most dangerous satanic cults,

an extraordinary expose that presents new evidence linking Charles Manson and the son of Sam to the cult network. Yeah, I tried to figure out if he had the whole book or just the sleeve because I read that it was like the like the cover of the book that he had, but either way the fact that this was in his home and Arlyse's murder is mentioned in it and then there's that possible connection to a satanic cult which is that rumor that was going around and then like the son of Sam is in this book too, it's all just so wild. Now police were weary to consider Stephen behind other murders in the area, but felt that it was definitely a possibility. On this, Sheriff Lori Smith said after Stephen's passing quote, during this time there were a lot of serial killers in this area.

After Bruce and Arles' family were given the news of Stephen's guilt, they did feel a bit of closure. Arles' 67-year-old sister Karen stated, quote, I've always believed that it was an inside person, because it took a while for them to lay her out the way she was done. This was someone who was not going to be interrupted, and he felt confident that he was not going to be interrupted. On closure, Karen added, quote, It does for me, my mom, I'm not so sure. She's 88 years old, and she's struggling with the why.

I said, you know, mom, I don't think we're ever going to know the why. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I am so glad this case got some closure after so many years one thing I forgot to add that so sad is actually Arles' dad died just a few months before it was uncovered that Stephen, that his DNA matched. And like his lifelong goal was to figure out

who did this to his daughter. So it's so, so awful that he died so shortly before answers came to her case. Yeah, and it's crazy to think that after 45 years, this guy finally was gonna be held accountable. And I just, it's crazy to think that after 45 years, this guy finally was gonna be held accountable, justice was gonna be served. And we could have gotten answers. Yeah, and he was a coward, he took his own life,

and he just couldn't face the consequences of his own actions. Exactly, so thank you guys so much for listening to this. Again, they are again, thank you for listening, but also again, thank you to Scott for recommending this case to us and for all the work that you did on the book on Arles. If you guys want to read that,

it is called Murder Under God's Eye, the Nightmare Killing in Stanford's Church. Yes, please make sure you go check out that book. Also, just wanna remind you guys again that I'm gonna be dropping my very first single called NUM on Wednesday, November 15th under the name GoSli. You can go give me a follow on Instagram at goSli.LA. Actually, hang tight after this quick outro and we'll play a little clip of that song NUM.

Alright, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. We are strangers in the dark I reach for you to go to just too far You share your secrets in the car And maybe one day I can steal your heart And through what you are feeling now In the room, why do I feel numb? In the room, why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb?

Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? Why do I feel numb? you