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A California man with a disturbing historical past of rape and homicide accusations has been arrested on suspicion of killing a lady in Dixon 4 a long time in the past, police introduced this week.
Herman Lee Hobbs has been a violent legal almost his complete grownup life. In 1969, when he was 22, he was suspected of greater than a dozen armed robberies all through the Sacramento space. After main police on a wild automotive chase, Hobbs admitted he was the serial robber and agreed to plead responsible; as soon as in court docket for sentencing, although, the 6-foot-5 mechanic bolted from the courtroom and needed to be tackled and subdued by a CHP officer.
Hobbs’ imprisonment for armed theft didn’t final lengthy. By 1975, he was again on the streets. He moved to Rio Linda, a block away from 13-year-old Terri Pata. Pata left her junior excessive at some point in January 1975 after feeling sick with a headache. She by no means made it residence. 9 days later, her physique was discovered stuffed in a drainpipe close by; she had been raped and stabbed to demise.
It wasn’t till 2000 that Hobbs’ a long time of sexual violence got here to mild. That yr, he was discovered responsible of the rape of a 15-year-old lady in Yuba County. As soon as he was in custody, police stated Hobbs’ daughter and niece got here ahead to voice fears that Hobbs was liable for killing “numerous children.” That tip led investigators to the long-cold homicide of Terri Pata — DNA examined from her crime scene got here up as a match to Hobbs, police stated. Already serving a prolonged jail time period for rape, Hobbs pleaded no contest to Pata’s homicide and acquired one other sentence of 25 years to life.
This was solely the start. That very same yr, the cranium of a lady was discovered by loggers within the Yuba County foothills. DNA testing recognized the stays as Brenda Ann Tucker, 29, who went lacking in 1994 from her residence close to Oroville. Tucker’s family members knew Hobbs — he’d typically even been a houseguest of theirs within the Nineties. Hobbs was charged with Tucker’s homicide, however a yr later in 2002, a choose dismissed the charges attributable to lack of proof.
Then on Monday, the Solano County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced Hobbs is the principle suspect in one in all its oldest cold cases.
In August 1980, the physique of a 21-year-old girl was present in a cornfield off Sievers Highway, close to the present web site of Pedrick Produce market in Dixon. Though it was the warmth of summer season, she was sporting a inexperienced wool sweater; she’d been shot a number of occasions within the head. Unbeknownst to detectives, the lady’s title had mistakenly been faraway from the nationwide lacking individuals database simply two weeks earlier than.
Augustine and Sally Campiglia had filed a lacking individual report for his or her daughter Holly Ann Campiglia in June of that very same yr. Her dad and mom instructed the Courier-Post that the New Jersey faculty pupil’s psychological state began altering in highschool, and he or she’d grow to be more and more erratic. On the way in which to a counseling middle, Holly Ann jumped from her mom’s automotive; they by no means noticed her once more. All of the household knew was that she had hitchhiked to Sacramento. After sending them one letter, she stopped contacting them.
“I simply saved hoping she would present up at some point with grandchildren,” Sally Campiglia instructed the Courier-Publish, “however with every year I would lose somewhat hope.”
In 1992, the Campiglias discovered Holly Ann had been by accident dropped from the lacking individuals database utilized by legislation enforcement. They contacted the database to re-add her; 5 weeks later, Solano County investigators instructed the Campiglias that they had a match: Holly Ann was their Dixon Jane Doe. The information was devastating.
“She may by no means look forward to a airplane. She both hitchhiked or took a bus,” Sally Campiglia stated on the time. “After they ship her physique residence, will probably be the primary time she was ever on a airplane.”
Though they may now bury Holly Ann, they nonetheless had no thought what occurred to her — and neither did investigators. The case went chilly till 2021, when her household reached out to police to see whether or not new forensic strategies may very well be used to search out Holly Ann’s killer. Proof was despatched for testing and male DNA was found. Solano County Sheriff’s Workplace investigators introduced Monday that they consider the DNA is a match for Hobbs, now 76 years previous and serving his sentence at a jail in Chowchilla.
Solano County investigators had Hobbs moved to the Justice Middle Detention Facility in Fairfield to await his subsequent court docket look on March 13. He’s being charged with first-degree homicide.
“Chilly instances are notably tough instances to work as a result of sadly, time goes on which ends up in gaps in reminiscence and new instances that are available in and alter the prioritization,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement. “… The unique deputy to research this case was Deputy Jose ‘Joe’ Cisneros who was killed within the line of obligation in 1985. His arduous work remains to be serving to resolve instances over 40 years later.”
Investigators are in search of witnesses and proof within the case; they ask anybody with info to contact the Solano County sheriff’s investigative unit at 707-784-7050.
A timeline of Herman Lee Hobbs’ alleged violent crimes:
1969 – Hobbs is distributed to jail for a number of armed robberies within the Sacramento space
1975 – Terri Pata, 13, disappears from Rio Linda Junior Excessive and is discovered useless 9 days later
1980 – Holly Ann Campiglia discovered useless in Dixon
1994 – Brenda Tucker goes lacking from Thermalito, Butte County
2000 – Hobbs is convicted within the rape of a woman, 15, in Yuba County
2001 – Brenda Tucker’s cranium is present in Yuba County
2002 – The Tucker homicide case is dismissed attributable to lack of proof
2004 – DNA connects Hobbs to the Pata homicide. He pleads no contest and is sentenced to 25 years to life.
2023 – Police say DNA linked Hobbs to the unsolved homicide of Campiglia
