Ann Olivier Hero Johnson, a 27-year-old white woman born November 14, 1947, was found raped and stabbed to death in her Montclair, Oakland, California home in August 1975. She was the daughter of Dr. Alvin Anthony Hero and Helene Stauffer Hero and the wife of Dr. William Irving Johnson.

The homicide remained unsolved for decades. In 2005, biological evidence from the crime scene was re-examined with modern DNA analysis and matched to Charles Jackson Jr, an African American man born in 1937 who has been linked to multiple murders in the Bay Area. Jackson had a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for burglary, rape, assault, and child molestation, and was arrested in 1982 for the murder of Joan Stewart. He died in Folsom State Prison in 2002 at age 65.

Ann Johnson’s case is now counted among the killings attributed to Jackson; the DNA match provided a posthumous identification after about 30 years.