Margaret Rohrbough, 20, was murdered on December 2, 1979, in Costa Mesa, California. Her killing was one of a series of brutal home-invasion attacks in Orange County during 1978–1979 that involved beatings and sexual assault with blunt instruments such as two-by-fours or hammers, and victims were often taken from residences entered at night through unsecured doors or windows.

Years later investigators revisited cold cases using DNA testing. In 1996 DNA linked Gerald Parker, a former U.S. Marine stationed at El Toro, to multiple unsolved Orange County murders including Rohrbough’s. Parker reportedly confessed with details that matched the attacks; those confessions and the DNA evidence were used in prosecutions. Parker was convicted on six counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and received a death sentence in 1999.

Rohrbough’s family and community were affected by the case’s resolution and by related developments in other cases that followed Parker’s confessions. Does anyone have memories of Rohrbough or information about her life in Costa Mesa that could add context to her case?