A foggy February morning in 1973 marked the end for 21-year-old Leslie Marie Perlov, a bright Stanford University graduate whose body was discovered in the rolling hills near Palo Alto, California.
Strangled and assaulted, her case baffled detectives for decades, her promising life cut short by a shadow that lurked unseen.
Then, in 2018, genetic genealogy pierced the veil, linking the crime to John Arthur Getreu, a man who had evaded justice across continents.
Born in 1944 in Newark, Ohio, Getreu grew up in a military family, relocating often until settling in West Germany as a teen.
There, at 18, he committed his first known murder, raping and killing 15-year-old Margaret L. Williams at a U.S. army base in 1963.
Convicted and sentenced to 10 years, he served over six before parole, expressing remorse that faded as he returned to the U.S., marrying and blending into normalcy.
By the 1970s, Getreu lived in Palo Alto, working odd jobs while his dark urges resurfaced. On February 13, 1973, he attacked Perlov as she drove home from work, strangling her with her scarf after a failed rape attempt.
Her body, found days later, showed signs of savage struggle, but leads dried up without DNA tech.
A year later, on March 24, 1974, 21-year-old Janet Ann Taylor hitchhiked from La Honda, only to meet Getreu’s path.
Daughter of Stanford football coach Chuck Taylor, she was beaten, raped, and strangled, her body dumped in a Woodside ditch.
The cases were mirror images, young women, strangulation, and sexual assault near Stanford, but it was finally in 2018 that the detectives made the connections.
Parabon NanoLabs pieced together the DNA profile from the Perlov’s garments. Via the posting of the DNA in public databases, the investigations of CeCe Moore and others connected family trees and eventually led them to Getreu.
In Hayward, California, Getreu, 74, was brought to court on a sample that had been gathered covertly and was an excellent genetic profile fit.
Getreu’s past unraveled: the German conviction, a 1975 statutory rape in California, and allegations of attempted murder. Charged for Perlov in 2018 and Taylor in 2019, he pleaded not guilty, but trials loomed.
In 2021, a San Mateo jury convicted him for Taylor’s murder after three weeks, sentencing to life without parole.
For Perlov, Getreu pleaded guilty in January 2023, admitting the rape attempt and strangulation, receiving another life term.
Health failing, he attended via video from hospital. Leslie’s sister Diane Perlov attended, stating, “Today was justice for Janet, Leslie, Diane and Margaret,” hoping for saved lives.
Getreu died September 22, 2023, at 79 in California Health Care Facility, his secrets buried with him.
Other cases lingered, like a 1969 attempted murder and a 1980 Ohio killing, but no charges stuck.His son Aaron expressed sympathy: “Science doesn’t lie – I hope this finally brings you peace”.
As dubbed by the Stanford murders, the Bay Area will be haunted for the victims 45 years, and their families endured .
Renewed by advanced DNA, life has been breathed into these cold files, demonstrating the power of technology against the erase of time.
Getreu’s conviction creates a hopeful resonance for future cold cases and warns us of darkness migrating into nature in our quiet towns. As a tale of two souls, this is for Leslie and Janet and the memory of the bright ages ahead.
The one who had become a law librarian and the one who was a student. Their bodies deserved worlds, not graves. With them, we urge for swift justice to ensure no family waits decades for the facts.
The path from Germany teen killer to California predator is a haunting caution of darkness moving across the ocean unchecked.
His life sentence, once more shortened by demise, is meager consolation. In their honor, let science and survivors be our champions as we turn the whispers of the past into the roars of the future.
