'Cold case' killing linked through DNA to Mule Creek Prison inmate

By Ray Estrada

A Mule Creek Prison inmate in Ione has been linked to the 1989 killing of a San Jose woman through the state's DNA database, police said last Tuesday.

Luis Perez, 40, was convicted earlier of an unrelated sexual assault case in San Francisco. Perez lived in the Bay area between 1983 and 1999.

San Jose police Sgt. Rob Millard said DNA was used to link Perez to the 1989 death of Nestora McCune, 61, of San Jose, whose partially clothed body was found by road crews cleaning Highway 101 near Brokaw Road in San Jose. McCune was strangled and sexually assaulted, Millard said. That year, police could find no one who might have killed the woman.

Earlier this year, Millard was reviewing "cold-case homicides" and had evidence from the McCune case sent to the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office Crime Lab for testing with newly available forensic technology.

In April, the lab found DNA in the evidence that linked Perez to the McCune slaying through California's statewide system that collects samples of deoxirybo nucleic acid, which carries genetic information. Convicted felons must give police DNA samples in California. Perez was found at Mule Creek Prison in Ione where he was charged Sept. 17 with the murder of McCune.

In May, Millard questioned Perez about the 1984 unsolved Sunnyvale slaying of Florence Ruth Berropse, 50, of San Jose, which appeared to have similarities to the McCune killing. Police also used DNA to tie Perez to a third killing in San Francisco. However, it was unclear this week whether San Francisco or Santa Clara County would filed a murder charge in that case.

"Based upon information developed in this investigation, police believe Luis Perez may be responsible for more sexual assaults and homicides in the San Francisco Bay area, and possibly other areas of the United States," Millard said.