Fremont police reopen 35-year-old murder case following new leads

FREMONT, Calif. - More than 35 years after the badly beaten body of Kathy Ann Miramontes was discovered on a Fremont street, an investigator has reopened the cold case hoping to find out who killed the young mother, police said Tuesday. 

Fremont police investigators are again looking into the 1982 murder after recent DNA testing produced new leads, said Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques. She declined to elaborate on exactly what the new leads are. 

They’ve also re-interviewed a dozen of Miramontes’ friends, relatives and associates, hoping for new information that might break the case.

But now they need the public’s help.

“We’re really just looking for any nugget of information, big or small,’ Bosques said Tuesday.

On March 8, 1982, about 5 a.m., a resident found a dead woman, later determined to be Miramontes, on Chase Court in the Niles district of Fremont. 

The 25-year-old was partially clothed and had been badly beaten.

Police knew almost instantly they were dealing with a murder.

“Her body was in really, really bad shape at the time a resident located it,’’ said Bosques.

An investigation revealed the killing was somehow linked to drugs.

“She definitely used drugs and her associates sold drugs,’’ Bosques said. “She was definitely in that crowd.”

Detectives also determined Miramontes may have been killed in another city or in another part of Fremont and her body dumped on Chase Court. 

Miramontes was a Union City resident and her local hang outs and friends were typically in Union City, more specifically in the Decoto area, police said.

“We don’t have a crime scene, we don’t know where the crime occurred,’’ said Bosques. 

Police said Miramontes had two boys, ages 5 and 10, when she was killed. She also left behind her parents, a sister and a brother.

Photos and memories are all that Jaime Patino has left of his mother.

"I was only 10 but I still remember that night very vividly,'' he said during an interview Tuesday. 

He lives in the home where he lived growing up. On Tuesday, he sat at the very same table where he sat the last time he saw his mother. 

"I had just seen her that Sunday night,'' he said. "She came here at the house, had something to eat and then I left and we never saw her again." 

"They actually cared and they actually did the hard work and I have to commend them for that,'' he said. 

Now the family is looking for closure in the case.

Anyone with information about the killing should call Fremont cold case homicide detective Jacob Blass at 510-790-6963 or email him at coldcasedetective@fremont.gov.

Tips can also be phoned in anonymously to 510-494-4856.