The Night Stalker a.k.a. Richard Ramirez terrorized California in the early 80s with a string of rape-murders. His DNA has now finally been retested allowing San Francisco Police to close the case of the 1984 murder of a 9-year-old girl in the Tenderloin.
Though the retesting of the serial killer’s DNA was largely a formality — meant simply to confirm the results of an initial test last year — the slow processing of the sample shows that despite efforts by the Police Department to eliminate its DNA-testing backlog, it remains far slower than industry averages.
Police said the turnaround time of the lab tests will not increase until three extra forensic lab technicians are hired. But Kim Carter, union representative for the criminalists, said the SFPD seems to be dragging its feet on the hiring. “If the Police Department wanted to get this process done with, they could,” she said. “I don’t know what’s taking so long.”
Department of Human Resources Manager Mary Hao said the process has been slowed because a test must be created to screen candidates. That test should be finalized by November, after which The City can finally announce the open positions and begin the hiring process, Hao said. cMore here.