After more than four decades, justice may finally be served for the family of Holly Ann Campiglia, who was brutally murdered in a Solano County cornfield in 1980. Convicted murderer Herman Lee Hobbs, 76, has been arrested and charged with Campiglia’s killing.
Hobbs was arrested last Friday in state prison and transferred to the county jail to face a charge of first-degree murder, authorities said.
He has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Yuba County in 2000.
In 2005, He also received an additional 25-to-life sentence for raping and stabbing to death 13-year-old Terri Pata, who was last seen leaving Rio Linda High School on January 21st, 1975.
Pata’s body was found several days later, stuffed in a drainpipe near Elverta Road and Lone Tree Road in what is now known as Metro Air Park. At the time, it was a very rural area of North Natomas, just northeast of Sacramento International Airport.
Campiglia’s identity wasn’t known until 1992 and the case went cold until 2021 when at her family’s request, a sheriff’s technician reviewed the original evidence to see if anything could be resubmitted for additional DNA analysis, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Hobbs had been a suspect in Campiglia’s murder for several years, but investigators were unable to gather enough evidence to charge him until recently. DNA evidence and witness statements reportedly linked him to the crime.
Campiglia was 20 at the time of her death. She was last seen leaving a bar in the Sacramento area in July of 1980. Her body was found in a cornfield in Solano County two weeks later. Authorities said that she had been shot several times in the head and neck.
The website ZodiacCiphers.com has an in-depth investigation of the murders;
These four young girls were dumped in extremely close proximity to one another, close to West Riego Road. Nancy Darlene Feusi was found approximately 729 meters from West Riego Road. Stephine Black was found 1.8 miles from West Riego Road and only 1.44 miles from the dump site of Nancy Darlene Feusi. Katherine Harlan was found on Powerline Road which crosses West Riego Road. Terri Maree Pata’s body was found approximately 2.4 miles south of West Riego Road. All four victims were found just off the side of a road in an extremely rural area of Sutter County and Placer County
Zodiacciphers.com
Hobbs is currently being held without bail in a California jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday. He faces charges of murder and special circumstances, which could lead to the death penalty.
Hobbs is currently suspect in at least five killings.