DNA prompts re-arrest of man set free in 1983 murder
SAN MATEO, Calif. -- A man set free more than 30 years ago after being arrested in the murder of a 19-year-old woman has been arrested again, after investigators this time connected him to the crime with DNA evidence, reports CBS San Francisco.
John Scott, 67, was arrested on Monday in Topock, Arizona, where investigators found him living after they reopened the 1983 case earlier this year. He is being extradited from Arizona to face charges in San Mateo County, California, for the murder, according to the sheriff's office.
Two sightseers found Sharon Ray partially buried in the sand at Pescadero State Beach on Oct. 30, 1983. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled, according to the sheriff's office.
Investigators determined that Scott, who was 35 years old at the time, was the last person seen with Ray in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. He was arrested as a suspect in her murder but later released because there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him at the time, sheriff's officials said.
But after the case was reopened earlier this year, new analysis of DNA evidence implicated Scott as the person who sexually assaulted and killed Ray, sheriff's officials said.