A grisly 1966 murder in the affluent town of San Rafael — which sent shockwaves through the community — was finally solved 60 years later, all thanks to modern-day DNA testing.
Sixty-year-old Marjorie Rudolph — a descendant of a wealthy and prominent 19th-century San Francisco dentist and landowner — was brutally killed in the evening hours while alone in her home.
More than half a century later, well after both she and her killer had died, two retired detectives finally solved it, SFGate reported.
“Both investigators have generously volunteered their time to support cold case investigations,” the San Rafael Police Department said in a news release. “As they often note, ‘Cold cases never grow cold in the hearts of the victim’s family.’”
Rudolph’s killer, Laurel James Switzer Jr., then aged 41 years old, was identified after well-preserved cigarettes at the scene of the crime placed him at the victim’s home the night the murder took place.
The perpetrator left behind a crucial piece of physical evidence: Discarded cigarettes that did not match the brand smoked by the Rudolph, leading investigators to believe they were key to solving the case.
Switzer Jr. was a former police officer and veteran who died by suicide just days after the murder.
On the evening of Feb. 1, 1966, at Carroll Court in San Rafael, Rudolph was home alone while her husband Leroy Rudolph recovered from surgery in a local hospital.
Her final known contact occurred at 5:30 p.m. when she declined a neighbor’s dinner invitation, stating she was already in her robe and settled in for the night, according to detectives in the 1960s.
Because there were no signs of forced entry, investigators concluded she likely opened her door to someone she recognized between the time she took that phone call and 8:00 p.m. When her neighbor discovered Rudolph dead inside her home the next day, the interior was in disarray, with furniture overturned, and blood spatters marking the intensity of the confrontation.
The killer utilized a heavy, pointed object to inflict catastrophic injuries on Rudolph, fracturing her skull and breaking nearly all of her ribs. A county coroner would later remark that her sternum was crushed so badly it was “as if someone had pounced up and down on her.”
After the beating, the killer filled a bathtub and placed Marjorie’s body inside. Her wristwatch, still fastened to her wrist, stopped at 7:55 p.m., providing detectives with a definitive timestamp for the conclusion of the attack.
Although the killer attempted to stage a robbery by ransacking drawers, no valuables were missing from the home. There was also no evidence of sexual assault.
The families of the victim and the killer were said to know each other.
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