Suspect Held in 1983 Death of Cynthia Munoz Faces New Homicide Charges

A man charged in 2007 with a decades-old rape and homicide now faces new charges after DNA evidence linked him to a second death, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Christopher Melvin Holland was charged Friday with the 1983 homicide of Tera Marowski, a 21-year-old San Jose resident. Marowski went missing in late March of that year and was found dead in the back seat of her car on April 2, 1983, in unincorporated San Jose.

The case was reopened recently by the sheriff's cold case unit, and Holland was linked to the homicide through DNA evidence.

Holland already faces charges in a killing that took place only four months after Marowski's death. Cynthia Munoz, 17, was found dead in her bedroom in Campbell on Aug. 7, 1983, raped, strangled and suffering from stab wounds.

Holland and a friend were regular visitors to the Munoz home. DNA evidence led to charges being filed against Holland in that homicide in 2007.

Investigators obtained the DNA evidence in that case in part by taking samples from Holland's brother, David Holland.

David Holland's DNA sample in turn linked him to a 2001 rape of an 81-year-old woman in her San Jose home. David Holland was arrested and charged with that crime in 2007.

Investigators said they analyzed the brothers' Y chromosomes, because the chromosomes are almost always the same among men who have the same father.

Bay City News Service