Murder of Mary Quigley

Mary Elizabeth Quigley
Summer 1977
Born	Mary Elizabeth Quigley February 28, 1960(1960-02-28) Tucson, Arizona, United States
Died	September 10, 1977(1977-09-10) (aged 17) Santa Clara, California, United States
Nationality	American

Modern day photo of crime scene.

Plaque place by friends at crime scene.

Mary Elizabeth Quigley (February 28, 1960 - September 10, 1977) was an American murder victim whose death was a cold case for nearly 30 years. It was finally solved by DNA database matching.^[1] Quigley was a senior at Santa Clara High School. She was attending a beer party and left the party house late in the evening of Friday, September 9. Her body was found the next day approximately 300 yards away hanging from a cyclone fence in Washington Park (now War Memorial Park) in Santa Clara, California. She had been raped and strangled. The killer, Richard Archibeque, was discovered by a DNA database match from samples he was required to submit because of a conviction for a later rape in 1979 of another teenage girl. At the time of Quigley's murder, DNA technology was not sufficiently advanced for identifying suspects.

Background

On the night of Friday, September 9, 1977, Quigley, a student at Santa Clara High School, attended a back to school beer party at a house near the corner of Monroe and Market Streets in Santa Clara. An acquaintance had given her a ride to the party on the back of his motorcycle and had promised to offer her a ride home. He left the party and did not return until after Quigley had left. Witnesses last saw Quigley leaving the party around 11:45 PM alone and on foot, headed toward the house of a friend who lived nearby.

In the early daylight hours of September 10, a groundskeeper noticed at a distance an object up against a fence that separated some apartments from a Santa Clara High School athletic field. The object was more or less 100 yards from the path that Quigley likely would have taken through War Memorial Park. It wasn't until around noon of the same day that the groundskeeper investigated further and discovered that the "object" was the body of Mary Quigley.

Quigley's body was unclothed. Her panties were found inside out dangling from one ankle. Her pants were about 30 feet away. Debris on the body strongly suggested that she had been stripped in the area where the pants were found. She had been dragged to the fence and hanged by the neck on the fence with an item of her upper clothing, where she suffocated.

Aftermath

No immediate suspect was identified and the murder became a cold case for nearly 30 years. Quigley's friends and classmates kept up the pressure on law enforcement throughout the years, keeping the case alive. In 2005, Detective Sergeant Kazem resubmitted evidence from the Quigley homicide investigation to the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory for DNA analysis. On December 27, 2006, the Crime Lab informed Sergeant Kazem that a computer database search of DNA profiles of known offenders identified a Santa Clara resident Richard Armand Archibeque, age 47 (DOB 01/26/59), and a fellow classmate of Quigley's, as the suspect. Later that day, Archibeque was arrested by detectives for the murder of Mary Elizabeth Quigley.

Archibeque was convicted of first degree murder in San Jose, California on March 2, 2009. He was scheduled for sentencing on March 27, 2009, under 1977 guidelines and could receive 7 years to life. The defense claimed that Archibeque could have had consensual sex with Quigley, but none of Archibeque's semen was found in her underwear, which undermined this defense theory. The immediate crime scene remains pretty much unchanged to this day. A hole cut from the fence by the police where her sash was tied remained until recently, until the entire fence panel was removed and a small plaque placed there.

Quigley's friends and classmates have lobbied the City of Santa Clara for a memorial bench and plaque to be placed in her honor at War Memorial Playground, and to rename the park Mary Quigley Memorial Playground.

References

1. ^ "Santa Clara handyman found guilty three decades after killing classmate" San Jose Mercury News March 2, 2009

External links

• Santa Clara Police Dept press release.
• Santa Clara Police Dept press release.
• Mary Quigley tribute page.
• Page relating Mary Quigley's story.
• Murder of Mary Quigley at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Quigley, Mary Elizabeth
Alternative names	Quigley, Mary Ann
Short description	Murder victim
Date of birth	February 28, 1960
Place of birth	Tucson, Arizona, United States
Date of death	September 10, 1977
Place of death	Santa Clara, California