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John Arthur Getreu, the man accused of murdering two young women on Stanford University property in the 1970s, will stand trial after being hospitalized with a brain aneurysm, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.
Getreu, 76, of Hayward, was scheduled to begin trial in late September for the murder of Janet Ann Taylor, 21, whose body was found along Sand Hill Road west of Interstate Highway 280 on March 25, 1974. She had been strangled.
The unsolved crime languished until 2017 when DNA evidence linked Getreu to another strangulation murder, the death of 21-year-old Leslie Perlov, who was found on the Stanford campus in Santa Clara County on Feb. 13, 1973. Santa Clara County sheriff investigators arrested Getreu in 2018 after finding his DNA on evidence at the crime scene and matching it with his DNA found on a discarded coffee cup they had retrieved while he was under surveillance.
San Mateo County sheriff investigators and the District Attorney’s office arrested and charged him with Taylor’s murder in May 2019 after his DNA was found on the crotch of her torn pants.
Getreu’s trial was postponed after he was hospitalized with the brain aneurysm, which affected his speech and required him to have physical therapy. On Nov. 2, he appeared in court in San Mateo County from jail by remote video. His defense attorney, John Halley, told the court that his health has improved so that the trial can resume. His case is set for trial on Jan. 7, with opening statements and evidence to begin on Jan. 25. His trial is expected to take a month.
Getreu is being held on $10 million bail in the Taylor case. He remains in Santa Clara County jail in San Jose for the Perlov case without bail. He is also expected to stand trial for Perlov’s murder next year.
