SELMA, OR- They say you can’t escape the long arm of the law, and such is such the case for a 72-year-old Chico, California man, who was indicted last week for a murder that occurred 42 years ago, NBC News reports.
Mark Sanfratello was indicted by a grand jury for murder Friday in connection with the July 3, 1983, disappearance of Teresa Peroni, then 27, in Selma, Oregon, according to a profile in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
“Following an argument over Peroni having another lover, Peroni and her boyfriend [Sanfratello] went into the woods at 1270 Illinois River Rd.,” the profile said. “Peroni never returns.”
Peroni’s family reported her missing, and the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation, the Office said.
The sheriff’s office acknowledged that she was dating Sanfratello, who was two years her senior.
“Teresa was 27 years old and was known to be in a relationship with Mark Sanfratello, who was 29,” a press release read.
“Teresa was last seen with Sanfratello walking into a wooded area while attending a party,” The New York Post reported.
The Sheriff’s office said they were never to establish probable cause in the case to file charges, and Peroni’s body had never been found. In a news release last week, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged it had reopened the investigation last year.
“The sheriff’s office started by looking for any known individuals still alive that had some type of involvement with the cold case and knew details of the initial Peroni investigation,” the sheriff’s office said.
In the 1990s, an unidentified human skull was sent to the University of North Texas, which has a cutting-edge forensics lab, after it was found in the area where the victim disappeared.
A landowner alerted police that he had found a human skull in the woods.
Despite repeated searches with cadaver dogs, no other human remains were found in the area.
Pathologists and investigators at the University of North Texas were able to use additional DNA sent by the sheriff’s office to confirm that the skull was indeed Peroni’s.
After being presented with the new DNA evidence, the grand jury indicted Sanfratello.
He was initially questioned by Chico police last week.
Court records indicate that he had a hearing in Butte County, and it appears that an extradition waiver was filed.
NBC News reached out to a public defender appointed to Sanfratello in California; however, no response was received.
Inmate records reviewed by the outlet show Sanfratello was in custody at the Butte County jail Thursday afternoon, July 3.
