Improved DNA technology credited with solving 35-year-old Tilden Park cold case
BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Police announced they've identified a suspect in the Nov. 1990 sexual assault and murder of Maria Weidhofer in Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park.
The East Bay Regional Park District Police Department says that evidence collected from Jon Lipari, who died by suicide in Oregon in Nov. 2024, was linked to the victim.
"Through this investigation, Jon Lipari, was determined to be a potential suspect and later became our primary suspect in 2024," Detective Christopher Rudy of the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department said.
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"When it was a match, it was definitely bittersweet, I would have loved for him to know that we were zeroing in on him," Rudy said.
Weidhofer was found dead on Nov. 16, 1990 on a trail near Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park. Police say she was found with rope around her neck and with physical signs of a struggle after she had been reported missing the night before.
Semen collected from Weidhofer's body decades ago, later uploaded to a genetic genealogy database, eventually turned up as a positive match.
"It's a long process, it takes time but we were able to get a pool of suspects that we slowly went through and eventually Lipari became our primary," he said.
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This comes nearly eight years after the department released these images of the suspect, generated by sending DNA from the crime scene to a company saying it can turn DNA into a face.
A face detectives now say, matched Lipari.
"Because in 1990, we didn't have the ability to extract DNA in this fashion and process the DNA and certainly didn't have the ability to do the comparisons on a familial basis and even just comparing it to a pool of potential suspects," said Morage Police Chief Jon King.
King was one of the original investigators who had responded to the scene in 1990.
"Every time you have a case as an investigator that you can't solve, you may put the file in the drawer but the file in your mind doesn't go away, it always weighs on you," King said. "I won't say that it's a weight off my shoulders but it certainly makes me sleep a little better at night."
Lipari's family was shocked to find out about his involvement just a week after his suicide.
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His former sister-in-law told ABC7 News they're sending condolences to Weidhofer's family.
Detective Rudy reading this statement from Maria's brother, Hans.
"On behalf of our immediate and extended family, we would like to express our gratitude to law enforcement for their unceasing efforts in finally bringing some measure of closure to this tragedy," Rudy said.
Police say there's no indication there was any previous contact between Weidhofer and Lipari.
