In June 1974, 17-year-old Kathy Marie Stark, a white female, was found murdered in Fresno County, California. The case remained unsolved for decades while investigators worked with the limited forensic tools of the time and no suspect was initially identified or charged.

Cold case detectives later re-examined preserved evidence using modern DNA analysis and were able to obtain a viable profile that tied the killing to Ray Dell Sims. Sims was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Janet Herstein and had been convicted of killing Elizabeth Ortega; authorities believe he may have been responsible for as many as five murders. Prosecutors chose not to pursue charges against Sims for Kathy Stark’s death while he was in his seventies and already serving multiple life sentences.

The DNA identification provided Kathy’s family and the Fresno community a measure of closure after more than three decades. Does anyone have memories of Kathy or information about her life in Fresno in 1974 that could add to the record?