The San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that the 1983 murder of Dorothy Tate, who went by the nickname Toby, has been solved.
Detective Clint Cole says he used a mix of old evidence and new DNA genealogy analysis to identify two men involved in the murder.
“ It's a relief to get any murder case solved,” Cole said. “You want to give the family closure and some idea of what happened to their loved ones, especially in these cases that linger on for 40-some-odd years.”
Tate’s younger sister, Priscilla Tate, said she always felt they had a special bond as sisters.
“When she looked at you, it was complete attention and acceptance,” Priscilla said. “It was charisma. That's it, she had charisma.”
Priscilla says that having this case solved feels like Tate’s second, real funeral.
In a press release, the Sheriff’s Office said that Tate was murdered near Hearst Castle, likely as part of a burglary.
Both men identified in the investigation, Steven Richard Hardy and Charley Sneed, died before the case was solved.
CeCe Moore, the head genealogist at Parabon NanoLabs, said she used special DNA databases specifically approved for law enforcement to identify Hardy’s genetic material and match him to the crime scene.
“We're basically reverse engineering the identity of an unknown suspect, based on who they share DNA with in genealogy databases,” Moore said.
Moore said this case was difficult because she discovered Hardy’s biological father wasn’t the man on his birth certificate.
Additional evidence, including “fingerprints recovered from a Coca-Cola can found at the scene,” according to a press release, identified Sneed at the crime scene.
The case was reviewed by SLO County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth, who determined that Sneed and Hardy likely “ would've been convicted based on the evidence,” according to Cole, despite the two men never having been tried for murder.
