A young woman left the law library and was never seen alive again. It would take years of persistence and advancements in technology to finally get the answers her family had waited decades to hear. For episode information and photos, please visit: anatomyofmurder.com/similarly-tragic/ Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc
Chapter 1: What happened to Leslie Perlov?
But back in the 1970s, this particular part of California became infamous for another reason. serial murder. The San Francisco Bay Area was an absolute hunting ground for prolific killers like Edward Kemper, who murdered 10, the still unidentified Zodiac killer, who killed at least five, and of course, Ted Bundy, who sexually assaulted and killed dozens of young women.
And as it turns out, Palo Alto was the home to yet another predator who, until recently, had gone unidentified for more than 40 years.
Today's story begins back on February 13th, 1973, when a recent Stanford graduate, 21-year-old Leslie Perloff, left the local law library where she worked.
Here's Sergeant Noe Cortez from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, who has headed the Cold Case Division since 2016.
She was accepted to go to law school. She had recently moved back to live with her mother in the city of Los Altos. Her father had passed away six months prior. So she had been living with her mother, and she was also working in the law library at the Palo Alto Courthouse.
Along with being an aspiring lawyer, Leslie was also a passionate student of the arts and literature and had the promise of a bright future. In fact, it was art that led Leslie on a mission that day in February of 1972.
She talked to her supervisor and wanted to leave right at 3 p.m., which was her normal time to leave work, because she wanted to go to the hills that were west of Stanford.
If you're not familiar with this area, Palo Alto and Santa Clara County, it's just stunningly beautiful country. And according to friends, Leslie had the idea to commission a local artist to create a painting of the landscape as a gift for her mother. Her plan after leaving work was to scout the perfect location, thinking she'd be up and back before sunset.
She drove to the intersection of Page Mill Road and Old Page Mill. She parked her vehicle at the entrance of an old quarry. And this would have been west of Stanford University in the hills between Stanford University and Highway 280. She parked her vehicle there sometime after 3 p.m. It would probably have taken her at the most 10 minutes from her work to that location.
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Chapter 2: How did the investigation unfold in Leslie's case?
They did take her vehicle for testing, for processing, for evidence. And at the time, fingerprinting was the major way of collecting evidence. They also collected any fibers that were inside the vehicle. But nothing ever was connected to a specific person or a specific crime.
As far as investigators could tell, no other person had been inside the car with Leslie before she disappeared. The search for her continued by air, and nearly 24 hours after she had gone missing, officers spotted something about a mile from Leslie's vehicle.
Officers then rushed to that specific location. And when they arrived, they were shocked by what they found. It was a body of a young man who had shot himself with a shotgun. And so investigators focused on that individual as a possible suspect.
The coincidence of finding this victim of a recent self-inflicted gunshot wound during a search for a missing woman was too much to ignore. Police had to consider that this unidentified man may have had something to do with Leslie's disappearance.
They contacted numerous individuals that lived in the area. This young man was known to frequent the area to go hiking or just sit in his vehicle. His girlfriend told investigators that they would frequently go up to that old quarry to drink alcohol. And so he was very familiar with the area.
And given the remote nature of the location where Leslie had gone missing, it stood to reason that if she had indeed met with foul play, it would have been at the hands of someone equally familiar with the area. But as investigators pieced together the man's movements on the day Leslie went missing, they realized that his death may not be connected at all.
During their investigation, they learned that at the time Leslie disappeared, he was at home, he was not anywhere near that location, and eventually ruled him out.
Investigators were back at square one. They continued their search of the hills, adding officers on horseback to the team. And as the critical first 48 hours passed, Leslie's family began to fear the worst.
It wasn't until Friday, February 16th, at approximately 10.40 in the morning, that a sheriff's mounted deputy reported that he had discovered Leslie's body.
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Chapter 3: What similarities exist between Leslie's and Janet's murders?
You know, it's an incredible system when it works. But in this case, Noe's hopes of a quick close were dashed.
There was no connection to any DNA profile in the CODIS database.
But that also meant that they could definitely rule out the possibility that Leslie was the victim of some other serial killers that, by 2018, had been caught and convicted, and in some cases, executed. This included co-ed killer Ed Kemper, the Golden State killer Joey DeAngelo, and Ted Bundy.
Noe was also aware about the emerging forensic science field that it might hold the key to finding Leslie's killer, and that was genetic genealogy. And obviously, we've talked about that before. But basically, you know, people submit their own samples to various companies, whether it's to create family trees or find long-lost relatives.
And at some point, police figured out that they could use those same databases to help solve cases, too. So in this case, while it wouldn't necessarily return the name of Leslie's killer, it might give you a brother or an uncle, and police could then take it from there.
It's a technique being used more and more by law enforcement to solve cases, especially cold cases in which DNA testing was not previously available. By 2018, Noe turned to a private lab for this service.
With Parabon Nanolabs, they take the DNA evidence and they enter it into the ancestry databases that are available, where the public, they put their DNA into these databases to see if there's a connection with other individuals to locate distant relatives and start a family tree.
And it didn't take long before GEDmatch returned the name of a possible second or third cousin of the person who left his DNA under Leslie Perlov's fingernails. Police were then able to trace that family tree right back to Northern California.
That person actually lived in Palo Alto at the time of the murder of Leslie Perlov. Not only that, he lived three and a half miles away from the crime scene. His name was John Arthur Getrue.
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Chapter 4: How did new technology aid in solving the cold case?
After decades in the shadows, Getru was finally taken into custody.
He was 74 at the time of his arrest.
In the interview room at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, Noe sat down with the person he believed had strangled and killed Leslie Perlov, a man that had been walking free for over 40 years.
We had him transported to my office, the sheriff's office headquarters in San Jose, and that's where I interviewed him for two to three hours.
Getru had eluded police for years through skill or just plain luck. But in Sergeant Noe Cortez, he now had a formidable adversary.
I asked him about Eddie had been arrested. He said no. And when I told him, well, I found out that something happened in Germany. And he said, well, looks like you did your homework.
Using forensic genealogy, police in Palo Alto, California had positively ID'd DNA recovered from the 1973 murder of Leslie Perloff.
On November 20th, 2018, 74-year-old John Getrue was arrested at his home for the murder. What follows are excerpts from his interview with Sergeant Noe Cortez. So I'm Sergeant Cortez.
I'll let you know what's going on and why you're here today.
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Chapter 5: What was the significance of the DNA evidence?
You know, I did a little bit of research. I tried some of these.
Yeah, I don't believe you did a lot of research.
Yeah, yeah. I obtained the police reports from the Palo Alto Police Department about that rape. And something that stood out about that was when he was sexually assaulting this young girl. He said, I have my hand around your neck, and if you scream, I'll do you in.
So we talk a lot about the mindset of an investigator walking in to interview a potential suspect in a murder investigation. And it's not a secret that our intention is always to get them to talk to us, right? It's not necessarily a confession. It's just a hunt or search for information. And really, depending as an investigator how much you have going in,
And how much you actually know from other interviews or evidence that you may have collected at the crime scene is how you really know what direction you're going to take, your positioning. But of course, the most important thing is to gain information, your best source sitting right across from you.
And to your point, Scott, it really is like keeping them talking. And again, like you can see how Noe's doing it. He is starting very generally and he is almost tiptoeing down the road he wants to go in, as you can hear, as he keeps going forward with what he said next.
Eventually, I told him when I got to the investigation for Leslie Perlov's murder, I told him that I was investigating a death in the hills. that west of Stanford University. And I showed him a picture of Leslie Perloff. And this picture was the picture that was used back in 1973 by the sheriff's office as a flyer for any tips and leads. And he looked at the picture and he said, Stanford graduate.
Yeah. But that's it. I don't even recognize her.
Why do you say she's a Stanford graduate?
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Chapter 6: Who was John Arthur Getrue?
Getrue, a man convicted of both murder and two sexual assaults of young women, was admitting that he was familiar with the crime scene area and that he'd even lived nearby. And after two hours of denials, Noe went a bit deeper with his questioning.
When you were younger, did you ever fantasize about sexual assault? That's what it sounds like by looking at my records.
Yeah, yeah. Or killing a young woman? In this investigation, if your DNA was on this young lady, why would you think your DNA was on her?
I haven't the slightest idea.
Were you involved in the murder of this young girl? Nope. But Noe doesn't let up. He continues to press Getrue for the truth before dropping the big reveal.
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Chapter 7: What were the implications of John Getrue's criminal history?
Your DNA is on her. Yeah. Okay? I'm not trying to find out who did it. Mm-hmm. What I'm trying to find out is why you did it. Mm-hmm. And I think you know more than you're telling me.
I wish I knew. I think you... What I remember, like I said before, about five years ago, I've lost a little.
And I'm going to ask you, I mean, did you hurt this young girl?
Didn't hurt her. Did you kill her? No, did not kill her. Remember, Sergeant Cortez is on a fact-finding mission here, right? So he's going to want to give Getro a final chance to tell the truth.
My job is merely to find the truth in every investigation. And there's a lot of factors in that. A lot of it now, of course, is evidence. And the evidence that we have points to you. And the reason I wanted to talk to you is to give you the opportunity to tell me what happened.
I wish I could. Especially when my DNA is on her.
Yeah. And I was hoping that, you know, looking at these photographs, talking about your past, talking about the events of your past, learning, I learned a lot about you, the type of person you were growing up, becoming an adult, living your life. You know, I was hoping that you could help me out by just giving closure to this family who lost this young lady. Nope. No?
Can you give me an explanation of why your DNA is on her?
Sir?
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