![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772123174_378_SJM-L-COLDHOM-0227.jpg\")
The 1984 murder of Kelly Ralston, 21, of San Jose, remains unsolved, but the San Jose Police Department is hoping to generate new leads by releasing a description of a possible suspect. (San Jose Police Department)<\/p>\nThe 1984 murder of Kelly Ralston, 21, of San Jose, remains unsolved, but the San Jose Police Department is hoping to generate new leads by releasing a description of a possible suspect. (San Jose Police Department)<\/p>\n
SAN JOSE \u2013 Kelly Ralston\u2019s murder more than 40 years ago in San Jose remains unsolved. But a recent development is raising hopes the cold case will finally be cracked.<\/p>\n
During a review of the case, investigators found a description of a possible suspect that had not been disclosed to the public, according to San Jose police Sgt. Jorge Garibay.<\/p>\n
The person was described as a white man, 32 to 35 years old and 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, Garibay said. He also had a thin build and strawberry blond hair.<\/p>\n
The review also identified a separate 2005 anonymous tip that indicated the person likely lived in the area at the time of the murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hopeful this announcement will generate new tips related to the case,\u201d Garibay said.<\/p>\n
Ralston, 21, was found by a roommate in the downstairs bedroom of her Edgar Court apartment on Aug. 28, 1984. The San Jose State University student, who had a brown belt in karate and aspired to be a police officer, apparently fought furiously against her knife-wielding attacker, this news organization reported in 1989.<\/p>\n
A small kitchen knife thought to be the murder weapon was found in the same room.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite extensive investigative efforts at the time, the case remained unsolved,\u201d Garibay said.<\/p>\n
Detectives are now conducting a review of the original evidence, prior investigative leads and any additional case materials to determine whether advancements in forensic technology or new information may help move the case forward.<\/p>\n
Garibay said anyone with information related to the case \u2013 \u201cno matter how small or seemingly insignificant\u201d \u2013 can call the SJPD Homicide Unit at 408-277-5283, or email Detective Sgt. Ivan Barragan at 4106@sanjoseca.gov<\/a> or Detective Mike Harrington at 4365@sanjoseca.gov<\/a>. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1984 murder of Kelly Ralston, 21, of San Jose, remains unsolved, but the San Jose Police Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,25599,723,134,91091,1331,100,236,88,90,89,198,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-195004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-cold-case","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-homicide","12":"tag-kelly-ralston","13":"tag-murder","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-police","16":"tag-san-jose","17":"tag-san-jose-headlines","18":"tag-san-jose-news","19":"tag-santa-clara-county","20":"tag-south-bay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}