A Bay Area jogger was abducted and killed while she was out for a run 35 years ago. Decades passed and her killer was never caught or identified, but thanks to DNA evidence police believe they have now determined who murdered Maria Jane Weidhofer.
Weidhofer was 32 when she was last seen on November 15, 1990. That day she went out for a run, leaving her home in Oakland for a jog around nearby Tilden Regional Park, according to SFGATE.
Working night shifts at the Oakland Macrobiotic Community Center, Weidhofer typically jogged in the late morning or early afternoon when the trails were busy. On the day she disappeared, She went to walk the Nimitz Trail and left her car parked near Inspiration Point.
When she did not show up for work, her worried coworkers called her home to see if she had just skipped a shift. They failed to reach her. One of Weidhofer's friends went looking for her and found her truck parked at Inspiration Point, not far from where she went to walk the Nimitz Trail earlier that day.
After her abandoned vehicle was reported to the police, a search began. It did not last long.
The next morning, Weidhofer's body was found left near a grove of redwood trees, approximately a mile into the trail.
The East Bay Regional Park District Police thought at the time that her killer had likely been hiding along the trail, waiting to ambush her. They operated on the theory that the attacker raped and killed Weidhofer and collected a DNA sample from the woman's body for their investigation.
Police made a suspect sketch and determined they were seeking a man with black hair and mustache who had an "agile build" and may have been wearing a black and white plaid shirt and dark dress pants. The details used in the sketch came from witnesses who noted a man on the trail wearing business clothing rather than athletic or outdoor clothes one might expect a hiker or runner to wear.
The investigation continued, but years passed and no killer was ever brought to justice for killing Weidhofer.
That changed on Wednesday; the East Regional Park District Police Department announced that new evidence was pointing them to a suspect; Jon Lipari.
The work that led to the break in the case began five years ago when the police requested FBI assistance with DNA testing.
By 2024, the results of the testing and genealogical tracking led police to suspect Lipari, who was living in Gold Beach, Oregon at the time.
In November of that year, Lipari, who was in his 70's, died by suicide. According to East Bay Regional Park District Police Detective Christopher Rudy, Lipari did not know he was being investigated at the time of his death.
"When it was a match, it was definitely bittersweet, I would have loved for him to know that we were zeroing in on him," Rudy said, according to ABC 7.
Investigators took a DNA sample from his body and sent it for comparison to the DNA pulled from the Weidhofer crime scene.
“The comparison determined the DNA profiles generated from the evidence collected at the original scene and the DNA from Lipari were a match,” the department said in a press statement this week. “We hope that today’s development brings some measure of closure to the family, who have shown tremendous strength throughout this difficult time."
Investigators do not believe that Lipari and Weidhofer knew each other.
Moraga Police Chief Jon King — one of the original investigators on Weidhofer's case — said he was pleased to put the decades-old case to rest.
"Every time you have a case as an investigator that you can't solve, you may put the file in the drawer but the file in your mind doesn't go away, it always weighs on you," King told ABC 7. "I won't say that it's a weight off my shoulders but it certainly makes me sleep a little better at night."
Weidhofer's family issued a statement after they learned that her killer had been identified. Rudy read their comments during the press briefing.
"On behalf of our immediate and extended family, we would like to express our gratitude to law enforcement for their unceasing efforts in finally bringing some measure of closure to this tragedy," the family said.
On the 15th anniversary of Weidhofer's death, her family said her death — and the mystery lingering around who killed her and why — were ever present in their minds.
“For us as a family, this has never been a cold case,” her mother, Jane Weidhofer, told SFGATE at the time. “We are denied her friendship, her companionship and the chance to see her develop and share our lives with her.”
