Man arraigned on murder charge in Oregon for death of girlfriend in 1980s cold case
Subsidies Pass, Ore. – A man suspected in the disappearance of his girlfriend of the time in the 1980s and who was recently extradited from California in Oregon was translated by a murder from the cold affair.
Mark Sanfratello, 72, was arrested on Wednesday in front of the County Court of the County of Josephine, in the south of Oregon, after a large jury charged him for the second degree murder in the death of Teresa Peroni, said the office of the Attorney General of Oregon in a press release.
Sanfratello is detained without surety, according to the online judicial archives. His defense lawyer, Elizabeth Baker, said that he “claimed all the rights granted to him under the law”.
Peroni disappeared in 1983 at 27 after attending a party in a rural area near the small town of Selma. The authorities say that it was seen for the last time entering the woods with Sanfratello, her boyfriend at the time. The authorities investigated, but there was not enough evidence to move forward with accusations.
In 1997, a human skull was found on a neighboring property, which was then searched with the use of a corpse dog, according to the Sheriff’s office of Josephine County. The skull was sent to the University of Northern Texas for examination.
The sheriff’s office reopened the case in 2024, the investigators gathering new DNA evidence and using modern forensic tests. With additional DNA, university experts were able to confirm that the skull was that of Peroni.
Sanfratello was arrested last month in Chico, California.
Investigators are still looking for information to anyone who attended the party.
“What happened to Teresa Peroni left her family from decades of uncertainty and grief,” said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield. “Although the legal process is underway and it is important not to prejudge its result, this arrest reflects possible progress when law enforcement organizations persist and evolve with new tools. It is a powerful reminder that time does not break the need for answers.”
This is the second recent cold case of Oregon that was linked to someone in California. State police said in May that a man who had been found dead along the Interstate 5 in Oregon had been identified after almost 45 years and that the famous Californian serial killer Randy Kraft was the only person inquiry for the 1980 murder.
