A nearly 50-year-old San Francisco cold case has come to a close after a Colorado man was found guilty this week of killing a teenager visiting San Francisco back in 1978, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

Fifteen-year-old Marissa Harvey was visiting her sister when she went missing on March 27, 1978, after saying she was going to Golden Gate Park. A day later, Harvey’s body was found at Sutro Heights Park, with signs she had been sexually assaulted. 

Harvey was found to have died of strangulation. 

The San Francisco Police Department’s homicide division responded to the scene, but the case went cold for decades, with no suspect identified. In 2000, new technology allowed law enforcement to pull DNA from Harvey’s clothing and some used chewing gum found on her back.

It took 21 more years before SFPD’s cold case division was able to use that DNA to identify a suspect via investigative genealogy and homed in on Mark Personette. 

In a joint operation with the FBI, law enforcement surveilled Personette in Denver, where he lived, and watched as he discarded trash about 15 miles from his home. They then used that trash to obtain his DNA and found it was a match for the DNA found on Harvey’s clothing and the gum at the scene.

While Personette claimed he had not been in San Francisco at the time, law enforcement also found 1970s maps of the city and a set of California license plates with a 1979 registration sticker. During the trial, another woman testified that Personette had sexually assaulted her a year and a half after Harvey’s murder. 

“At long last, justice has been delivered, and Mr. Personette is being held accountable for this horrific crime,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “I would like to thank the survivor and the victim’s family for never losing hope and remaining steadfast in their commitment to seeing justice done.”

After being found guilty of murder, Personette, now 80, faces seven years to life in prison. He is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 15. 

Tenderloin Community Benefit District Executive Director Kate Robinson said children are exposed daily to an “open 24/7 drug market on the streets.”

“We have failed to protect all of the children in this neighborhood from seeing the opportunity there, because we haven’t provided them with other opportunities in its place,” Robinson said.

Since August 2023, at least 57 teens have been arrested in San Francisco for drug dealing — many from the Tenderloin — Mahmood said at the press conference. He added that two men were charged earlier this year with using a minor to distribute narcotics in the neighborhood.

“That tells us young people are being targeted, young people being recruited into the drug trade,” he said.

Private donations totaling $200,000 will fund the pilot for up to a year, according to Mahmood, who hopes it becomes a “permanent component of the city budget.”

In a neighborhood without places like an ice cream shop, the pilot program also aims to create more spaces for young people to hang out safely.

“We have to fundamentally change the environment,” Mahmood said. “But we also have to fundamentally provide the opportunities for these kids to see that there is a path to better lives.”

The Tenderloin Community Benefit District and United Playaz, which Mahmood described as “natural” partners in the pilot, will support the initiative by conducting youth outreach and helping with the violence prevention programming.

United Playaz’s Executive Director, Rudy Corpuz, said there are Tenderloin residents who have worked toward this effort for years, calling them “our frontline soldiers that’s willing to put their life on the line for the kids and the people here.”

They are the most equipped to help their neighborhood, Corpuz said.

“The Tenderloin people — who’s been going through all this, walking through this madness — they are the fix to the violence that’s going on here,” he added.

Loureen Ayyoub visits Levi’s Stadium to join 49ers fans who are tailgating before the game.

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