Cops: UC Berkeley slaying solved 24 years later

(KTVU) Berkeley - Here's KTVU crime reporter Henry Lee's Rap Sheet blog for Aug. 8, 2016:

UC BERKELEY SLAYING SOLVED, COPS SAY: For more than two decades, the 1992 stabbing death of Grace Asuncion at a UC Berkeley campus building has gone unsolved.

But campus police now say they've identified the killer.

Thing is, their prime suspect has been dead since 1993.

The case dates back to Feb. 7, 1992, when a custodian found Asuncion's body in the fifth-floor office of the Pilipino American Alliance in Eshleman Hall off Bancroft Way.

The junior premed student had been stabbed numerous times in the neck. She was not raped or robbed, police say.

Authorities say John Iwed of Alameda was identified as a suspect early in the investigation. UC Berkeley police said Iwed admitted to his wife that he had gone into Eshleman that day while under the influence of drugs and ended up attacking and killing Asuncion.

Iwed's wife notified law-enforcement officials, and UC Berkeley police pursued a number of leads. Iwed died of a drug overdose in January 1993.

Recently, UC Berkeley police re-interviewed key witnesses in the case. They developed sufficient information and shared the results of the investigation with the Alameda County district attorney's office. Prosecutors said they would have charged Iwed had he still been alive, authorities said.

Asuncion's parents, Edward and Aida Asuncion of Agoura Hills sued the university, saying Eshleman had a history of assaults, burglaries and visits by transients and that campus officials had done nothing about it. (Eshleman was razed; a new building, also named Eshleman, has since taken its place).

The family agreed to a $750,000 settlement.

You can see Henry Lee daily on KTVU. If you have a tip for Henry, send an email to Henry.Lee@foxtv.com or contact him on Twitter