Overview

• Gary Ramirez, 78, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years for the 1982 rape and murder of Karen Stitt in Sunnyvale, California.
• Stitt, 15, was sexually assaulted and stabbed 59 times, her body discovered near a bus stop where she was last seen after visiting her boyfriend.
• The case went cold for decades until investigative genetic genealogy in 2019 led detectives to identify Ramirez as the suspect through a DNA match in 2022.
• Ramirez, a former Fresno resident living in Hawaii, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder earlier this year, avoiding a trial.
• Family and friends of Stitt attended the sentencing, expressing continued grief but relief that justice was finally served after more than four decades.