SAN FRANCISCO – For 25 years, the unsolved murder of 9-year-old Mei Leung haunted San Francisco police homicide Inspector Holly Pera, a novice patrol officer at the time who now helps solve the department's cold cases.
On Thursday, Pera — who revived the case about five years ago — and San Francisco police said DNA evidence has linked the infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the "Night Stalker," to the April 10, 1984 homicide.
"I was a new police officer at the time. That's part of the reason that the case was relooked at," Pera said. "It's the type of case as a new officer, a case involving a little girl, that you don't forget."
Ramirez, 49, is being held on death row at San Quentin State Prison after being convicted in 1989 in Los Angeles of 13 murders.
The Los Angeles-area murders in 1984 and 1985 terrorized Southern California, with reports of satanic symbols left at bloody murder scenes by a killer who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. Ramirez was captured by angry residents who recognized him as he tried to carjack a woman in her driveway.
Ramirez previously has been tied to killings in Northern California. He was charged in the shooting deaths of Peter Pan, 66, and his wife, Barbara, in 1985 just before his arrest in Los Angeles, but he was never tried.
Mei was murdered in the basement of a residential hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood where she lived with her family.
Police said Ramirez at the time was staying at two different hotels in the same neighborhood.
When Pera and her partner, Inspector Joseph Toomey, resurfaced the case, crime lab technicians extracted DNA samples from items collected from the crime scene 25 years ago. Police would not say what the items were.
Matthew Gabriel, a DNA technician at the crime lab, said the sample was run through CODIS — the Combined DNA Index System — a database with samples from 1.2 million people, including convicted criminals.
The database returned a "cold-hit," which means the sample collected from the Leung crime scene matched Ramirez' DNA profile in the database.
The girl's family still lives in San Francisco, police said, and were grateful when told of the break in their daughter's case.
"It's painful for them. Hopefully it brings closure," said Deputy Chief David Shinn.
On Wednesday, Pera and Toomey traveled to San Quentin and served Ramirez with a warrant to get a confirmation DNA sample. It will be used to confirm a match on the sample in the CODIS database. If the match is confirmed, the case goes to the district attorney, who decides if charges will be filed.
Pera said Ramirez cooperated with the officers.
"He made no comment," she said.
Michael Burt, Ramirez' attorney during the murder trial, did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.
(This version corrects spelling of girl's name to Mei, not Mae.)

Creators Syndicate –
"There is a tide in the affairs of men" — Shakespeare

Yes, but undertows, too. As Obama, Pelosi, and Reid rush to transform America into a European-style social democratic state, they must be nervous; they must feel the sand sliding under their feet. The 2010 elections are just over the horizon and the omens are not encouraging for them. Thomas Jefferson warned that "Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." Maybe so. But the Democrats may be calculating that a slender majority is better than an anorexic majority, or no majority at all.

In 2006, it was Republicans who couldn't catch a break. The Iraq War was going very badly. The federal response to Hurricane Katrina had, fairly or not, further tarnished the Bush administration's reputation for competence. And Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, was caught in a sex scandal with congressional pages. Between Sept. 17 and Oct. 8, identification with the Republican Party dropped from 48 percent (even with the Democrats) to 36 percent. Scandal has always played a large role in American politics. That November, the Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives and Speaker Pelosi promised "to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C." The Democrats, she proclaimed, "intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history."

Yes, well, about that — not going so well. Rep. Charles Rangel, a familiar face of the Democratic Party after 40 years in the House, failed to report as much $1.3 million in income in what even the New York Times editorially described as "a lengthy docket of bizarre-to-outrageous behavior." Yet Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic caucus shielded Rangel when the Republicans voted to expel him from the chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Two enterprising young people armed with little more than a zest for combat and a video camera have single-handedly discredited and disgraced ACORN, the busiest (and it need hardly be added, least punctilious) voter registration foot soldiers for the Democratic Party. Revealed as corrupt beyond the most partisan imaginings, ACORN has been swiftly defunded, thus sidelining the organization in upcoming elections and dealing a public relations blow to the Democrats.

Sen. Harry Reid himself may not be returning to the Senate in 2011. Polls in Nevada suggest that 54 percent of voters have a negative view of the senator, and match-ups with either of his two likely opponents show him losing by 7 to 10 points.

Sen. Arlen Specter, who left the Republican Party out of a principled belief in his own indispensability, is facing a tough race as a Democrat in Pennsylvania. A primary challenge, which he fled the Republicans to avoid, has surfaced in the Democratic Party as well. Meanwhile, he trails the likely Republican nominee, Pat Toomey, by 5 points whereas Joe Sestak, his primary opponent, is running even with Toomey.

In off-year races that are interpreted as harbingers, the Virginia (likely) and New Jersey (possible) governorships may be gained by Republicans.

Congress' approval rating stands at 21 percent. Seventy-one percent of Americans are unhappy with the way things are going in the country.

Non-presidential contests often go badly for the party in power, and there are indications that 2010 may be even more painful than most. The extremely high turnout among African-Americans that marked the 2008 race is unlikely to be repeated without Obama on the ballot. Democrats in general seem less enthusiastic this time than Republicans. A Washington Post poll of Virginia voters found that only 50 percent of those who voted for Obama planned to vote in 2010 compared with 66 percent of those who voted for McCain. Further, the group with the most consistent record for turning out in off-year elections is older voters, and they are not happy with the health care overhaul making its way through Congress. Obama won 66 percent of the votes cast by those between the ages of 18 and 29. But younger voters tend not to vote as heavily in non-presidential years. Election maven Charlie Cook envisions 2010 as the year of the "angry white seniors" as older voters turn out in force to oppose health care reform.

Much can change in a year of course. But for now, the tide is running very much against the Democrats.

To find out more about Mona Charen and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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