Overview
- A San Francisco jury on Thursday found Personette guilty of first-degree murder in the 1978 slaying of Marissa Harvey, who was visiting from New York.
- The cold case was revived in 2020 and, in 2021, investigative genealogy identified Personette as a suspect for FBI surveillance.
- Agents collected his DNA from personal hygiene items he threw away in a Denver-area Walmart parking lot, enabling a targeted comparison.
- Laboratory testing matched his DNA to material on Harvey’s sweater, jeans and a piece of dried gum recovered at the scene.
- Investigators later found 1970s San Francisco maps and California license plates at his home; sentencing is set for Dec. 17, with a potential life term.