DNA Leads To Charges In 1974 Oakland Murder Of 13-Year-Old
March 14, 2012
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – DNA evidence has allowed Alameda County prosecutors to file charges against a man suspected of sexually assaulting and murdering a 13-year-old Oakland girl 38 years ago.
Curtis Tucker, now 63, was charged with murder Monday for the killing of Julie McElhiney on Aug. 9, 1974.
He has also been charged with the special-circumstance allegations of committing murder while carrying out lewd or lascivious acts on a child and committing murder during a robbery.

Oakland police Sgt. Michael Weisenberg said in a probable cause statement filed in court that McElhiney, who was a sixth-grader at Sequoia Elementary School, was found about 5:40 p.m. the day of her murder face down on the second floor of her family’s apartment at 3022 Pleitner Ave.
She was transported to Highland Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Weisenberg said an autopsy indicated that McElhiney had been murdered, and the primary cause of her death was determined to be blunt force trauma to her head.

The coroner also documented that there was an injury to the girl’s vaginal area, Weisenberg said.

The Oakland Police Department’s criminalistics team processed the clothing that McElhiney was wearing at the time of her death for biological evidence, and Tucker’s DNA was found, according to Weisenberg.
He said Tucker has previous arrests and convictions for sexual assault and burglary.

In addition to the murder charge and the two special circumstances, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Tucker with having a prior conviction in 1972 for second-degree commercial burglary.
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Tucker is being held without bail at the county jail in Dublin and is scheduled to return to court Friday to have an attorney assigned and possibly enter a plea.
He was arrested at 10:45 a.m. on Monday at a Veterans Administration outpatient clinic at 2221 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/03/14/162301/


Man accused of killing Oakland teen 38 years ago appears in court
March 21 2012
OAKLAND, Calif. —
The childhood friends of a young Oakland girl who was killed almost four decades ago gave an incredible show of support Monday afternoon as the victim's alleged killer made his first court appearance.

The court hearing was held Monday for Curtis Tucker, the man arrested in a cold case DNA match for killing Julie McElhiney 38 years ago when she was just 13-years-old.
Amazingly, Hayward resident Michael Justice and other classmates came to court to see the man accused of killing their friend in 1974.

"I just want to see justice served after all these years," said Hayward resident Justice
When she was killed, Julie was already a straight-A student and talented violinist with a promising future.

"We all loved her dearly," remembered Cario Lam of San Jose. "I don't think I ever got mad at her more than two seconds at a time. All she had to do was smile at me."
Classmate Liz Tagami talked to KTVU by phone from Oregon.

"Why any child?" asked Tagami. "But why Julie, who was among the best and brightest of us?"
Their childhood innocence was lost then when, according to police, Julie was found dead upstairs in her family's apartment in East Oakland just off Highway 580.
In an affidavit, police said Tucker burglarized the home, found Julie, sexually assaulted her and then killed her with a blow to the head.

A cold case DNA match finally led authorities to arrest Tucker, now 63 years old and an army veteran, at a VA outpatient clinic in Oakland last week. He's a convicted rapist and burglar.
As they left court, one of Julie McElhenny's childhood friends cried from the emotional wounds now reopened.
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http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/man-ac...go-appe/nLXqT/