The last time Teresa Peroni was seen alive, she was walking into a wooded area in Selma, Ore., with a man she had been dating while they were attending a party on July 4, 1983. She was only 27, and had recently moved back to the state after a divorce.
Her family reported her missing but there was no trace of Ms. Peroni for more than a decade, until a landowner found a skull in 1997 near the woods where she was last seen.
Almost three decades after the discovery of those partial remains, the authorities in Josephine County, Ore., working with DNA experts in Texas, were able to confirm that the skull was Ms. Peroni’s.
A 72-year-old man, Mark Sanfratello, who was in a relationship with Ms. Peroni at the time of her disappearance, was arrested in Chico, Calif., on Saturday and charged with murder, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said.
Mr. Sanfratello is in custody in California, pending extradition to Oregon. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Because he was the last person who was seen with her, Mr. Sanfratello swiftly attracted the interest of investigators after she disappeared, Sheriff Dave Daniel of Josephine County said in an interview.
Shortly before she vanished, Ms. Peroni and Mr. Sanfratello had argued about whether she was seeing someone else, according to an entry on the case in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a national database.
Ms. Peroni’s family also said they had other arguments. Her brother, Russell Neill, said that their aunt had observed that Mr. Sanfratello was “really furious with her” because she had joined a church.
Becoming involved with a church was part of Ms. Peroni’s effort to turn her life around after her marriage ended in divorce, Mr. Neill said. He recalled attending her baptism with their mother and aunt. He was given the honor of submerging her in a creek during the ceremony, he said.
Her life hadn’t been easy, Mr. Neill said, because they grew up with an abusive stepfather, prompting them both to run away from home at different times. She was unable to work, he said, because her epilepsy caused her to have seizures. She ran away to Texas, where she got married in 1974, according to state records. Her life seemed to be coming together, until she was served divorce papers while she was visiting family in California, her brother said.
“It threw her life in shambles,” Mr. Neill said.
She went back to Oregon, where she met Mr. Sanfratello, he said. Then, she disappeared.
The authorities deemed her disappearance suspicious but did not have enough evidence to charge anyone, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said.
The skull found in 1997 was sent to the University of North Texas for DNA testing, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The authorities did not specify when that evidence was examined for genetic clues.
The sheriff’s office said it reopened the investigation into Ms. Peroni’s disappearance last year. The department was able to obtain DNA from people connected to Ms. Peroni to help determine that the skull was a match for her, Sheriff Daniel said.
When the Sheriff’s Office, which has a staff of 26 people, reopened the case, investigators reviewed the evidence that was collected in 1983 and re-interviewing several people, he said. The result was enough information to make an arrest, he said.
Mr. Sanfratello has had other brushes with the law. In 1985, he was charged with two counts of attempted murder, one count of rape and one count of burglary in the stabbing of his ex-wife and her 14-year-old daughter in their home in Yreka, Calif., The Record Searchlight of Redding, Calif., reported at the time. He was later sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for two counts of attempted murder.
He was later convicted on a count of theft or embezzlement of U.S. property in federal court in the Eastern District of California in 1999, according to court records. He was sentenced to two years of probation and was ordered to pay about $4,000 in restitution.
Mr. Neill welcomed news of the arrest, but is still mourning the sister he lost. He said he regrets not having spent more time with Ms. Peroni after they grew up.
“She had a lot of hurt and damage done to her but she still remained a loving person,” he said.
He is finding some peace in the belief that she is no longer suffering, he said. “That’s one solace I got,” he said, “that I know that she’s in heaven.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories.
The post 42 Years After She Vanished, a Man She Was Seeing Is Charged in Her Murder appeared first on New York Times.
