The Bizarre Murder of Arlis Perry
Episode 010
[SOLVED]
Arlis Perry
Nineteen year old newlywed Arlis Perry got into a spat with her husband while on a walk. She decided to go on alone to Stanford Memorial Church to calm down and pray. She would never come back. At 5:45am a security guard would find her body inside the church, murdered with an ice pick and posed in a lewd and sacrilegious position.
Her murder would become the subject of theories about the occult and satanism. Some would link her death to the Son of Sam, the Zodiac Killer and a satanic organization known as the Process Church of the Final Judgment. Despite these theories, the true identity of the man who murdered Arlis was unknown.
Witnesses would come forward to describe a man with sandy hair seen entering the church that night, a man whose description matches that of a man seen arguing with Arlis at her job the day before she was murdered. Join host Steven Pacheco as he explores this case, and studies the unanswerable question: Who murdered and posed Arlis Perry?
Listen to 010 - The Bizarre Murder of Arlis Perry
UPDATE - Case Solved
On June 26th, 2018, Deputies of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department moved to execute a search warrant on suspect Steve Blake Crawford, the security guard who originally found Arlis Perry's body. During the execution of that warrant, Crawford committed suicide with a self inflicted gunshot wound.
This is a short episode discussing the events of the day and the news about how this case was solved and the state of further investigations to come.
Listen to Update - The Bizarre Murder of Arlis Perry - Solved
Sources:
“The Ultimate Evil” - Maury Terry
“Murder at Memorial Church Remains Unsolved 40 Years Later” - The Stanford Daily, Oct 10, 2014
“Stanford Student’s Wife Found Slain in Church” - The Stanford Daily, Oct 14, 1974
“Stanford Offers $10,000 Reward in Coed’s Death” - Lodi News-Sentinel, Oct 15, 1974
“Grisly 1974 Stanford Murder Solved” - Palo Alto Online, June 28, 2018