July 14, 2022
On October 12, 1974, Arlis Kay Perry, 19, was murdered in the Stanford University’s Memorial Church in Stanford, CA. Her body was left staged in a sexual manner.
The case was unsolved until 2018.
On the night of October 12, 1974, while they were walking on campus, Arlis and Bruce had a minor argument.
Arlis told her husband that she needed to get away for a few minutes to clear her head and was leaving to pray at the Stanford Memorial Church, which was something that she did regularly.
She left at around 11:30 p.m. When Arlis had not returned by 3:00 a.m., Bruce notified authorities. Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputies went to the church and found the doors locked.
At around 5:45 a.m. on October 13, 1974, Campus Security Guard Stephen Crawford reportedly found the body of Arlis Perry in the east transept, near the altar.
She was lying on her back with her arms folded on her chest. Her pants were off and laying on top of her legs in a diamond shape.
An ice pick, with the handle missing, had punctured the back of her head. There was an altar candle laying between her breasts.
A second altar candle, approximately 3 feet long, was inserted into her vagina. She also showed signs of strangulation.
Investigators found semen on a kneeling pillow near her body. They also found a partial palm print on one of the candles.
Arlis Perry’s husband, Bruce Perry, was initially a suspect. Investigators ruled him and Stephen Crawford, the campus security guard who had found her out as suspects.
Seven people were determined to have been in or around the church during the estimated time of her death.
All the people were ruled out except for one man. Despite the witness’s description of the seventh person, he was never found.
An arrest was never made in the case, which eventually went cold.
In 2018, with the development of more technical and sensitive DNA comparison testing, a DNA match was discovered with the samples that had been carefully preserved from the 1974 crime scene.
Authorities immediately obtained a warrant for the arrest of Stephen Crawford, the Stanford campus security guard who had initially discovered Perry.
On June 28, 2018, 43 years after Perry’s murder, police attempted to arrest Crawford at his studio apartment in the Del Coronado apartment complex in Santa Clara County, CA.
He locked himself in his home and committed suicide by firearm before an arrest could be made.
Arlis Kay Dykema Perry was laid to rest in Sunset Memorial Gardens, Bismarck, ND.
© CopyRights RawNews1st
