Santa Cruz police seek leads in teen's 1975 cold case murder

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KGO) -- Police in Santa Cruz are looking for new leads in the 1975 cold case murder of a teenage girl.

On the 41st anniversary of Ed Cargill's daughter's murder he remembers the frantic hours he spent driving around after her disappearance. "All over San Jose, Santa Cruz in the mountains, looking and asking if anybody had seen anything," Cargill told ABC7 News.

Debbie Cargill, 19, a Campbell High School homecoming queen, was going to junior college and working at Albertson's grocery store in San Jose.

She was last seen in the parking lot on her way into work. Her body was found the next day in the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz.

"A lot of people were interviewed-- none of which led to a suspect in this case," said Investigator Ron Truhitte.

He came out of retirement to work cold cases in Santa Cruz. "In this job we don't forget things. We don't forget the looks on the family's faces. We don't forget what we find. We don't forget."

Santa Cruz police have launched a cold case website to generate leads in Debbie's case, as well as others.

Truhitte is asking anyone with information to contact him. "Somebody knows something out there," he said.

The Cargill family has lived with the loss for four decades. "We got grandchildren now, great grandchildren. She would have been another part of that. She would have had her own children," said Cargill's father Ed.