Murder of Mary Quigley

Murder Of Mary Quigley

Mary Elizabeth Quigley (February 28, 1960 – September 10, 1977) was an American murder victim whose death was a cold case for nearly 30 years before it was finally solved by DNA database matching. She was a senior at Santa Clara High School in California and 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.