Man Charged In 28-Year-Old San Jose Cold Case Murder
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- A man already charged with a decades-old rape and murder now faces new charges after DNA evidence linked him to a second murder, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Friday.
Christopher Melvin Holland was charged Friday with the 1983 murder of Tera Marowski, a 21-year-old San Jose resident. Marowski went missing in late March of that year and was found dead in the back seat of her car on April 2 in unincorporated San Jose.
Holland was linked to the murder through DNA evidence after the case was recently reopened by the sheriff's office cold case unit.
Holland already faces murder charges in a killing that took place only four months after Marowski's death. Cynthia Munoz, 17, was found dead in her bedroom in Campbell on Aug. 7, 1983, raped, strangled and suffering from stab wounds.
Holland and a friend were regular visitors to the home. DNA evidence led to charges being filed against Holland in that murder in 2007.
Investigators obtained the DNA evidence in that case in part by taking samples from Holland's brother, David Holland.
David Holland's DNA sample in turn linked him to a 2001 rape of an 81-year-old woman in her San Jose home. He was arrested and charged with that crime in 2007.
Investigators said they analyzed the brothers' Y chromosomes because the chromosomes are almost always the same among men who have the same father.
